#knowing most of my old friend groups though minus the adults

[hells1nfern0]

Same anon from before. I'm doing really good these days. Got curious about the old group and decided to try and look some of you up, lol. Sadly I know how it is losing a beloved pet. Mine passed last year coming up to around this time. Awful stuff. Good to know you're trecking through.

Ah I see, I tend to do that from time to time, just curious how they're getting on despite how things may have ended. I mean after all it's not like i want them dead, and honestly its nice to see how theyre going with their lives. It is awful stuff, I'm sorry you lost one of yours, I've unfortunately had to get rather used to it, losing at least one like every year so far since around 2020ish. but we live. Glad to know that you're getting on in life, with how much of a bitch it can all be its good to hear that people I used to know are doing good in their lives. Hell depending which friend group, we're all slugging along our early adulthood/early 20s, it's rough but if we're alive I consider that a victory. Thanks for contacting.

[xoteajays]

So far.. I'm not sure. I see Red Rain and DTC being removed September 20, possibly other the spinoff movies. But not the main three movies though? I'm not sure. Just rewatch what you can before then.

I know there are sites where you can watch Asian shows and movies. Obviously. But if a lot of those sites lag or freeze up, don't forget the frequents ads too. So many advertisements even with blockers on to prevent ads, which really completely annoys me.

~

If it wasn't for Murayama losing against Cobra, then he wouldn't reflect on his life choices. Like how that he loves his family and friends, wants to protect the people and places to matter to him. So on, so forth.

Hyuga complains about Rascals being fashionable while fighting, even though he's biting and pulling a lot of hair. Like a girl. But that... Is also how I figured Hyuga's kinks too. He definitely bites and pulls hair, during any intimate connections with his partner.

Yeah. The injury was accidental. But that's the main reason why Murayama becomes cautious of people he fights now. That's why he banned fighting... With the full time students and part time students.

~

White Rascals are true feminists. These men are so handsome, fashionable, cares and protects women. Ideal boyfriends or friends. Depending on the whole relationship characters have with these guys.

Don't really know if you read the facts about White Rascals..

The four new members of White Rascals that join in the second movie are group Koo handpicked himself to join. They are referred to as SMG, which stands for Sekai Meisaku Gekijou (World Masterpiece Theater). This was a famous annual anime series that ran for several years, based on classic stories. Each year would debut a different series. It’s said that Rocky watched this with his mother and thus gave the four members names based on characters from these classic stories. The members are:

Heidi, named after the titular character of Heidi, Girl Of The Alps.

Marco, named after a character from 3000 Leagues In Search Of Mother.

Lassie, named after the titular character from Famous Dog Lassie.

Cosette, named after the titular character of Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette.

Lastly, name “Rocky” was chosen for the character based on the fact that his actor is named Kuroki Keiji. A few of his outfits and accessories are actually Keiji’s own.

~

Coincidental. Unintentional. But yes! Basically very similar to their actual ages... Just switch Kento and Yuki. Yuki's born in September 1990, and Kento's in December 1990. So just switch their ages though.

And yes. Because how Keiji's appearance, I actually didn't expect him to be one of the older men who is involved with Exile. Granted the whole franchise did come out nearly nine years ago. But still. Keiji really does look good for his age. In my opinion anyway.

~

Murayama might not be the most intelligent leader, but he's definitely not stupid either. He just has this different method of learning compared to any other characters. That's how I see it. But still a himbo.

~

There are people who post snippets of the whole spinoff series. If I find those videos again, then I will send those videos to you. For you to watch.

Okay! Since you never said anything about the clip, about that scene, I really wasn't sure if you watched the video. But yes. They complained over the most.. That is what they complained about over the guys?!

Seriously.

They complain about Rocky being too old, a party animal, not cleaning his grille. Seriously? Rocky is a very man, not old. Just because he owns the club, doesn't mean he's a party animal since he is not the one partying. And, minus the smoking, Rocky cares about his hygiene so he'd clean his grilles too.

They complain about Cobra because he's too quiet. What's so wrong about dating a quieter man? Since I can't complain. I'm an introvert.. I enjoy the quiet.

They complain about Murayama being an adult still in school. That would be open to interpretation.

Smoky's from Nameless City. It isn't like he choose to be abandoned as a child in a city like that. So it is not his fault that happened to him. Like.. Seriously.

And Hyuga. The man was in prison for the violence, fighting and killing people... His older brothers were even involved with the yakuza. But they complained that he sits on the hood of his car. Like seriously.

Seriously?! These girls are stupid if that's what they choose to complain about when it comes to a lot of these men. No wonder most of them are still single.

~

"Great minds think alike." Like us when H&L is really involved. Same concepts. It's a good and bad thing.

I've already mentioned before about another active person in the High&Low fandom who's writing their story whenever they can. Well.. For example. One of the introduction scenes where their character ends up meeting the White Rascals. A lot of that, not the entire thing, scene was how I imagined a character meeting Rascals. But now it feels like I'm stealing it from them. So now I have to think of something too different from that, just so people don't assume I'm stealing from that person. Because I'm not like that. Which is why I have not really written introductions yet, because I don't know how to introduce them.

~

Do you have personality types for your original characters? Because I know some people have their personalities set for their characters.

~

I should eventually watch more Ghibli movies. I did watch Spirited Away, maybe a few scenes of Howl's Moving Castle but never the entire movie.

Besides High&Low. What are some other shows or movies you've been watching? Unless that may end up distracting you from H&L. If it does distract you.

my biggest issue with watching on non-streaming apps like netflix/etc is that sometimes they’ll throw up and explanation for some specifically japanese/korean-ism but only for half a second and then i have to slam on the ‘go back 15 seconds’ button and wait for it to load again. like please! leave it on the screen a little longer! i want to understand!!

~

if murayama didn’t lose to cobra he’d be undefeated and have wins across the board. #king. he did need to have his ass humbled tho, so thanks for the character development, cobra.

i think hyuga and murayama definitely have a kind of equation between s*x and fighting. like fighting is foreplay. they’re gonna kick some dude’s ass and then go make out with their gf. hyuga absolutely bites on any occasion, no girl is getting out of a sesh with him without marks.

murayama really ‘haha oops’ed himself out of that. like boy u better have apologised. todoroki is lucky he took his glasses off or that would’ve been a whole worse situation.

~

rocky said ‘everything i do is for women and especially for my mom and sister’ and i respect him for it. the whole childhood scenes got me in my feelings. like he was so little!! and also so f*cked up, him sitting there with his dead family while eating and then just. leaving. poor baby :(

i very lowkey ship cosette and marco. idk what to tell u. they’re just boyfriends in my brain. marco sleeping with his foot on cosette, leaning his arm on cosette’s knee while they’re planning, moving together to stop the daruma babies and chiharu fighting. they’re boyfriends! dtc’s entire rewatchability is dependent on me looking at them in the bg.

~

high&low is just rife with himbos. no complaints. incredible character choices. winning across the board.

~

i know we’re biased because we know all the backgrounds and have seen them in different situations and the strawberry girls likely don’t have all that information but still, no complaining! you wish - you wish! - you could get a guy like rocky!

what’s wrong with a quiet guy? also he’s got a motorbike. let him take u for a ride. maybe get to know the guy more than just in passing and he might open up to you.

well murayama’s graduated now. and he’s got a job. cant have any complaints about him now. he’s even got a bike too!

all the rude boys dudes are so cool and fun, just as an aside. also in addition to being abandoned in nameless, he’s mega sick and they realise that and just ‘he should go to a hospital’ - he’s got no money! all his friends are trying so hard to help him! no more talking about if he’s hot or not, get him some help!!

exactly! there is so much more to complain about about hyuga. the riding on the hood of his car is the least worrying thing on the list. (and also murayama does that. and technically worse since hes on the top of a gd truck).

they’re all single and then complain about literally the hottest dudes that they’re surrounded by who are also single. like ladies. cmon. oshiage is the only one who made a move, albeit at the wrong time bc murayama was having a character development moment.

~

you n me 🤝 having excellent thoughts about h&l.

i’m so bad at figuring out how to introduce characters to canons they don’t have established relationships with. i’ve been turning over ideas in my head for how to introduce ryuko to the other sword groups (she already knows hyuga+kato) and haven’t come up with anything i’m completely sold on yet - hence why i’ve only written that murayama fic and just started writing her character-focused introduction scene of when she runs away.

~

if you mean like myers-briggs types, then no because i cant figure them out. they’re kinda confusing to me. i do have their personalities planned out in my head though, like i know how they react to things and how they act, but i can’t slap a personality type on them. i have the same problem choosing birthdays for my ocs bc zodiac signs ahsdhfjdl

~

spirited away and howl’s moving castle are absolutely excellent and both are my childhood movies. they’re all very good though. they’re all on netflix iirc

i haven’t started anything new yet, but i’ve got a handful of things queued up to watch when i finish h&l - including a couple that have some h&l dudes in them, like sugarless and prince of legend. i’m also planning on watching the killing vote and the zom100 live action movie. and a couple other things i can’t remember the names of rn, they’re on my list tho. that’s just the j/kdrama stuff though.

[naivesilver]

And perhaps a couple of facts about the court (minus Eugene ofc)? Just two or three for each of them? :^)

Hello my friend let's get this party started again :^)

Ask me 10 things about one of my characters

they swap clothes/leave stuff at each other's houses constantly, which produces some hilarious outfits both on accident and on purpose

speaking of which, Twinkle gets a lot of hand-me-downs from Grace since Grace is a) a lot taller, therefore outgrows stuff quickly b) a tad wealthier family-wise, so she'd have plenty to spare that's hardly been worn (and it doesn't count as charity if it happens between friends like that)

in later years, Leona has a picture of both her boys as her phone wallpaper. Marco is a little more old-fashioned and has pictures of her, the boys and Pinocchio as a child in his wallet. Archie has a family photo in a frame on his office desk and probably also a very old drawing kid Pinocchio made for him taped to the wall

Ava is knowledgeable all things mechanic thanks to her dad, but she also has a severe case of road rage so Nicholas is the designated driver for short distances when Eugene is not available

Pinocchio is completely clueless when it comes to people flirting with him, even though it doesn't happen that rarely - Twinkle had to make the first move, and Lampwick was just as blind so that's why it took them so long to get shit done

in general they all run an informal betting pool about who other people's crushes are, both their peers and local adults. Jury's still out on where Emma spends her nights, or whether Pinocchio is right about Archie having (or having had) a thing for someone

given the amount of second (or in some cases first) languages spoken in their homes, it shouldn't come as a surprise that most of these kids know at least a few words in each of them, when they don't openly curse one another with clumsy but very heathed sentences

prom is a very chaotic business in a close-knitted community whose only newcomers often don't know what a prom is but usually have fancy dresses that would put any of the locals to shame. Background music switches abruptly between pop and traditional EF dances. The competitivity level is sky high. The Court tends to go as a group because it's funnier and it doesn't put anyone in an awkward position, but they actively participate in the drama because why not

THAT BEING SAID, they do bring in their specific brand of chaos every now and then. For example, freshman year Lampwick definitely asked Daria to prom because he thought it'd piss Eugene off. She agreed because she didn't have a proper date and she ALSO thought it would be hysterical. Eugene still holds it against them years later

sometimes, during gatherings or family functions, Nova can still be persuaded to do storytime to keep the younger kids occupied. It knocks them out by the second page, usually, and by the fourth or fifth it knocks the the older ones out as well, because you're never too big to be lulled to sleep by Sister Astrid's tried and true bedtime routine

[destiny-islanders]

Hey Destiny! Planning my first trip to WDW any advice :)

(I do hope you’re planning to go after the pandemic has been dealt with first off-- there are shops, restaurants, and certain experiences/shows that will be unavailable if you go around now-ish, and as far as I know they’re still charging full-price admission. So not only is it dangerous, it’s not worth it.)

But if you try and go next year sometime when life has presumably returned to normal...

If you can, stay on property! 

Not a requirement obviously, but WDW has transportation that can get you to and from the parks so you don’t have to deal with the parking lots at the parks themselves. It’s also really nice as an adult to go to EPCOT and drink around the world without having to worry about who’s driving back

It also makes staying for the fireworks much less painful... Like it is excruciating to trudge back to your car after spending all day at the park and having to deal with the insane crowds leaving the park, and traffic in the parking lots...

Staying on property allows you to get Fast Passes and make dining reservations a whole month before other guests can. Which ties into my next point...

GET FASTPASSES AND DINING RESERVATIONS AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE

If you want to go to Magic Kingdom and go on the Mine Train, Space Mountain, and Splash Mountain with FastPass, you need to have them booked sooner rather than later. Find out when you can book FastPasses and get them the second you can.

If you couldn’t get FastPasses for it, get to the park when it opens and make a beeline to your #1 attraction

I live in Florida and I have an annual pass, so it’s not a big deal if I can’t go on my favorite rides because the lines are too long. But if you’re from out of state and this is going to be your only chance to go to Disney for the year or even YEARS, arriving early is a must

Trying to get on Rise of the Resistance (the fancy new Star Wars ride) in Hollywood Studios?

You need to be inside the park before it opens. Period. That is the only way to ensure you can get on this ride since it is insanely popular. Once inside the park, you need to use the MyDisney app to secure your place in a virtual queue. Everyone in your group needs to be registered on the MyDisney app or you will not be able to make a reservation for them. Once you’ve made the reservation, you’re free to roam the park as you will until it’s your turn to ride

Grossed out by crowded public restrooms? Use one in a sit-down restaurant.

Obviously please don’t bring your whole family into a restaurant to use its restroom. I’m talking like if one or two people in your group have to go. Just walk into the restaurant like you already have a table and go to the restroom in there. Though all of the restrooms at WDW are usually well-maintained, imo they’re even nicer in the sit-down restaurants haha. This tip is a little prissy but eh. Thought I’d include it

Disney snacks you are required by law to try

Magic Kingdom

Cheshire Cat Tail (Really yummy for breakfast while you wait in line for one of your first rides of the day)

Dole Whip Ice Cream (IT’S DAIRY FREE-- my fellow lactose-intolerant people can eat it worry-free!!!)

Sweet and Spicy Chicken and Waffle sandwich (Split with friends if you have lunch or dinner plans-- delicious snack to eat between rides or at a show)

GET A BIRTHDAY CAKE SCONE FROM THE CANDY SHOP/BAKERY!!! THEY ARE MY FAVORITE DISNEY TREATS AND I ALWAYS BRING LIKE 2 OR 3 HOME WITH ME

Animal Kingdom

Cinnamon roll (A classic-- and again, a perfect breakfast treat to share while you queue)

Night Blossom (Or its alcoholic equivalent-- really yummy slushies perfect to sip on in the outdoor queues in Avatar world)

Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse (Need I say more? Yes it’s kind of dangerous if you can’t handle dairy though. Maybe steal a bite from someone’s just to experience life’s fleeting joys)

EPCOT

Adults who booze are obligated imo to get a Grey Goose Lemonade slushie in France. Tangy and sweet. COLD. Delicious.

Tarte aux Fraises (Honestly you can’t go wrong with anything in France... everything I’ve tried there is amazing...)

Giant pretzel (Not exactly a Disney-exclusive thing but... they’re humongous and a great snack to share with a group)

Side note while we’re in Germany-- there’s a little bar tucked into the corner near the back of this area. If you’re drinking around the world, go in there and get Apfel shots. Trust me I have good taste.

If they have them when you’re there... You need to get a meat bun in Japan. They are one of my favorite things to get at Disney Springs or in the parks when they’re available.

Hollywood Studios

(I’m not gonna lie this is not the park to get your snack on. There’s only one snack here I’m super passionate about...)

If you’re there around breakfast time (which you will be if you got there early for Star Wars), the S’mores French Toast in Toy Story Land is DELICIOUS. Just grab napkins. A lot of napkins.

Giant pretzel 

This is not a recommendation, this is a warning: THE MILK IN STAR WARS LAND IS GROSS AND I HATED EVERY SECOND A DROP OF IT WAS IN MY MOUTH

Rides you should try to do while you’re in the park

Magic Kingdom

Space Mountain

Splash Mountain (I wear a poncho because I hate having wet clothes,,,,,)

I think Thunder Mountain is kinda lame but I guess it’s worth doing if the line isn’t terribly long

Dwarf Mine Train

Pirates of the Caribbean

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin (smacktalk in the queue and try to maintain your dignity when you get 9000 points and all of your friends have nearly broken 1 million)

Haunted Mansion

Mickey’s Phillarmagic

Animal Kingdom

Expedition Everest

It’s Tough To Be a Bug (this show will probably terrify your young children if you have any, just a warning)

Flight of Passage (I GUESS... none of the rides in the Avatar section of the park are worth a 2 hour wait if you ask me...)

Dinosaur (again, this ride will probably terrify your young children... I think it’s scarier than Jurassic Park at Universal if you can believe it)

Kilimanjaro Safari (get a Fast Pass for this one-- it’s probably one of the most popular attractions in AK)

Kali River Rapids (in which I once again don a poncho like a 50-year-old man)

Festival of the Lion King (corny as hell but it’s fun)

EPCOT

(If you’re not here to check out the exhibits in each country idk what you’re doing here haha)

Test Track (honestly the only ride I like there)

Spaceship Earth (yes it’s a slow dark ride but it’s really charming and there’s a bit at the end that will probably make you and your group cry laughing)

Gran Fiesta Tour (It’s hidden in the temple in Mexico. Cute little boat ride with Donald and the Three Caballeros)

Soarin’ (My friends and I have an endurance competition to see who can keep their legs held out straight the longest throughout the ride. We got some of the people sitting around us to join in the last time we rode which was pretty hilarious haha)

I’ve heard the Frozen ride is fun, but I’ve never ridden on it myself, so I can’t really comment on it

Note about Mission Space: I got really sick on this ride, and I rode the TAME version. Most of my friends also get sick on this ride. It’s worth trying once if you’re really curious, but I was knocked on my ass for half of my day at EPCOT after riding this one.)

Hollywood Studios

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (A really fun ride but try to keep your head back or you will have a headache all day... Bring ibuprofen.)

Tower of Terror (Probably one of my favorite Disney rides in any park. Will most likely further terrify your small children who may still be traumatized from the bugs and dinosaurs of Animal Kingdom)

Rise of the Resistance (I don’t care about Star Wars but uh. Yeah. This ride was pretty dope.)

Smuggler’s Run (One of the more immersive rides I’ve been on... The ride vehicle is cool as all get-out and there are lots of buttons you can push and levers to pull... Blame one of your friends for being a bad pilot when you only manage to snag two pieces of cargo)

Toy Story Mania (exhaust yourself and make your arms really sore as you desperately try to exert your dominance over your friends as you pop balloons with darts and throw rings around volcanos before they erupt)

MuppetVision (I’m a Muppets ride or die fan and I still think this ride is charming and funny. There’s usually never a line so it’s a perfect break in the air conditioning with beloved characters)

Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railway (I haven’t gotten to ride this yet, but I’ve heard good things-- and the Mickey shorts this ride is based on are HILARIOUS, so I expect good things)

Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular (DISCLAIMER: Only really fun if someone in your group is selected to be one of the townsfolk. My sister got picked last time and it was hilarious)

Fantasmic! (I like all of the fireworks shows minus the Star Wars one in HS because I really don’t care but. Fantasmic stands out. You have to watch it at least once. Try to catch the first show if you can so you can avoid some of the rush of guests leaving the park at the very end of the night)

[ask-brainysmurf]

Dear Alternate Universe Version of me. Or should I just adress you by our shared name? I've never been in this situation before. Colourful showed me how to answer or rather write a letter to you. They were very excited.

Colourful asked me to answer your questions myself and I don't smurf what is going on in that smurfling's head. Yet here I am. They don't even smurf exactly how old they are, can you believe it?

Onto your questions about my relationships with some other Smurfs.

Clumsy is my best and closest friend. He is rather adorable as well. Don't tell him I said that though. I haven't always treated him that well, which I smurf regret for.

As for Smurfette, she and I are fine at the moment. Sometimes she kicks me out the village or yells at me but that's nothing unusual about that.

Gender is confusing and riddicoulous.

Hefty and I do not get along most of the time. He kicks me out of the village on the regular, sometimes as soon as I open my mouth before I even smurfed my advice. There has been periods where he tolerated me though.

As for Baby Smurf. I am nearly always off babysitting with Clumsy. Don't get me wrong I love Baby Smurf.

Gender is confusing and to be honest ridiculous as a concept.

I live in the southeast part of the village. I was delivered among the younger bunch, the middle young adult group currently. We were delivered over a period of 50 years in this universe so. Clumsy is about a year younger than me.

I am sorry this is such a short letter but I have other things smurfing my attention.

Sincerely

Brainy Smurf.

Dear Brainy Smurf #3,*

I've never smurfed in this situation before, either. This is my first time smurfing with another version of myself. I apologize if you were rushed into answering- I have time to wait, if necessary, but I smurfpose I didn't make myself clear.

I can understand them not knowing how old they were, if they didn't have a caretaker as diligent with timekeeping as Papa Smurf. Speaking of Papa Smurf, I notice that you did not answer my question on his "sense of humor," which makes sense. I came up with that code phrase in order to ask a question I deemed important to our potential differences without scaring the Smurfling, but I shouldn't have expected another version of me to recognize a code that I smurfed on something Jokey Smurf said years ago.

(My memory is truly astonishing- I continue to mix up Colorful and Crystal when people from your universe write me letters, I regularly forget what year it is and have to check the records to remember, and yet somehow I can remember single sentences from decades ago. For your sake, I hope that you don't have my memory issues.)

As for your relationships with the Smurfs that I mentioned, they mostly seem to align with mine. However, the Smurfette I know does not "kick me out of the village"- in my village, Hefty is the only one with that level of strength, and most Smurfs just hit me on the head instead. Smurfette doesn't even like smurfing to that level of violence.

Another difference is that I would, in fact, tell Clumsy he's adorable. Not in front of others- well, minus the one time I filled an entire page in this book with a rant about how much I loved Clumsy Smurf. I wasn't in my right mind that day. I don't know what was wrong with me- I wasn't drunk (I don't drink alcohol), I wasn't sleepy, it was in autumn and not spring... I've tried to rip that page out since then, because it's incredibly embarassing to have that out there for multiple universes to see, but the pages of this book do not rip. I can't take back the feelings I've exposed to everyone. But I digress. The reason I smurfed a new paragraph for this topic is that I would encourage you to tell him. It'll probably make him happy. Also, I don't know how different your Clumsy is from mine, but if you're worried he'd take it as a romantic advance rather than a platonic compliment, and you'd have to explain, and it would end up incredibly awkward... actually I think I've just talked myself out of talking you into saying that to him. I was going to tell you that my Clumsy is as dumb as the rocks he collects when it comes to those things, and that he'll assume pretty much anything is a friendly gesture unless the person doing it overtly states that it isn't, but you're another version of me and therefore your Clumsy might be different, so I guess just go with what your mind is telling you.

Anyways, moving on.

Taking care of Baby Smurf has never been a constant job for me, but Clumsy and I have certainly smurfed it more than any other Smurf in the village, even if not by much. Even now, if Papa needs most of the Smurfs in the village to help him with something, Clumsy and I will still be the ones tasked with taking care of Baby instead of actually helping Papa. However, in my universe, Baby Smurf is now in their early 20s, so they're a toddler and much easier to take care of. If your version of Baby is still, well, a baby, I can undersmurf how it feels like you're always taking care of them.

I agree with you on the concept of gender, and I also live in the southeast of the village, so we have much in common! Obviously, given that we're the same Smurf and all, but we can't definitively say that any trait is intrinsic to every version of us. For all I know, there may be an alternate version of me who doesn't even smurf glasses!

It's smurfily fascinating that your version of Clumsy is about a year younger than you. In my universe, my Clumsy is about a year older than me! (1 year, 4 months, and 15 days to be exact- Clumsy was delivered on November 29, 100327, and I was delivered on April 13, 100329.) I'm the youngest of my age group to be delivered to my own village, but there are two grove Smurfs younger than me. I suppose the artificial Smurfs are as well, but I don't know if that holds up physically as well as chronologically.

I understand the short letter, as I, too, am often busy. I'm mainly available today because it snowed yesterday, and I decided to stay inside so that other Smurfs don't smurf me with snowballs.

I hope you're having a smurfy day, and Merry Christmas!

Sincerely,

Brainy Smurf #1

*I have decided to address you as Brainy Smurf #3, because numbering makes it easy to distinguish between alternate versions of myself. As I am the one who smurfed this book, I am #1. Another Brainy who was mentioned offhandedly by an asker (when I had a bit of a headache and thus couldn't ask more, hence why you're the first I've smurfed questions to) is Brainy #2. And you're the third.

[elencelebrindal]

What about the 17th century Gold saints if they come back to life and see the world and everything that they know change? And what they will react and meet to the classic 20th gold saints?

I’m so sorry for taking so long to answer this, I’m having a ton of issues and cannot concentrate on long posts. I’m also sorry about any mistakes you may find in this, I kept forgetting what I was writing and how I was writing it. Stress is a beast.

Also... I assume you meant TLC or ND, but that XVII century throws me off. Maybe you meant XVIII? I panicked and double checked, and there’s no XVII century Saints side from the XVII century alterative (aka Sage, if the internet is not betraying me, I’m not good with dates). I went with TLC.

First of all, they will ask themselves “where the hell are Shion and Dohko?!”, because obviously they will be missing. Since, you know, they didn’t die back then. And... the premise is: everyone’s back to life. The only moment in time where the Golds were almost all together as adults was during the Sanctuary Battle, and half of them died in 12 hours. Before that, with Pope Ares being a tyrant and half the Sanctuary being empty, doesn’t work. Shion is a bit of a problem, so there’s two options: either his old friends get traumatized again upon knowing he was assassinated, or traumatized again because they learn he became a Specter (kinda). Or both. Pretty sure that at least one of them, if Shion presents himself wearing a Surplice, will instinctively punch him. They don’t even realize it’s him, they just see the Surplice and all their fight or flight responses light up more than a beacon. And then they’ll be traumatized again upon learning Shion was Pope before dying.

Dohko... well, how would you react upon discovering one of your companions didn’t die, but stayed alive and well thanks to Athena’s misopethamenos? Minus the accidental punching, obviously.

Anyway, once they finally get over that shock, it’s time for them to check out the world and the other Saints. And of course, they start from the beginning.

Aries Temple At least a couple of them will mention how Mu resembles Atla (same thing I did when I saw the kid, after all). Then, they will ask about his master, because obviously he’s Shion’s successor, so bring in another shock. Mu is Shion’s disciple. Great. They keep getting showered with Shion knowledge without even searching for it, and every single piece of information is a punch in the gut. They will leave with a dumbfounded expression on their faces, onward to the next temple.

Taurus Temple Rasgado will be absolutely jealous of Aldebaran’s name. He gets to have it since birth, who wouldn’t be jealous of that? They immediately bond, though. They’re both good-hearted people, after all, even if ready to wreck everything if they need to. Manigoldo really likes his sense of humor.

Gemini Temple Now, for this I’m in bit of a pickle. I don’t know if Aspros and Defteros are both there, if there’s only one of them, I don’t know. The fact the both Saga and Kanon have been the Gemini Saint doesn’t help either. Let’s say this. If they meet Saga, they will like him as a Saint. Powerful extremely skilled, with a great mind? All of them are going to appreciate such a man. And then, they learn about him as a tyrant, and collectively take a step back. If they meet Kanon, Athena please help them. Someone will try to punch him. Kanon will trap them in his labyrinth because there’s no way he’s going to let Aspros pass without testing him (I know, poor Aspros, but I love doing this to him). He’s going to bond with Kardia, though. They can both brag about how they defeated Rhadamanthys, even though Kanon will emphasize that he actually killed him.

Cancer Temple Please, someone take Manigoldo away from this wretched place. As soon as they step in, Manigoldo will either faint from shock upon hearing all those distressed laments, or try to kick Deathmask in the jewels for keeping innocents as trophies. There’s no way the whole ordeal could end well.

Leo Temple Immediately after seeing Regulus, Aiolia will pat him on the head. No one can resist Regulus, not even him, I won’t change my mind. And then onward to more serious stuff. Precisely, Aiolia will talk with all of them, to make sure they’re actually the real Gold Saints, and there’s a high probability he’s going to ask for a fight just to be even more sure. Just like he did with Athena, back then.

Virgo Temple Remember when I told you that Shaka, in my humble opinion, is the most powerful Gold Saint of his generation? Close to the gods? Well, at least a couple of them will hesitate before stepping inside his temple, because his cosmo is terrifying. Asmita, though... he’s curious. He’s going to step in and stand in front of Shaka, comparing his cosmo to his own, trying to understand him. Of course, as soon as he learn that his eyes are closed, Asmita will ask if he’s blind or just chose to keep them shut. They’re probably going to have the longest conversation of the group, both yearning to learn about how the other uses his cosmo and fights. And, Shaka uses that time to test them, again, because he needs to protect Athena and the best way to do that is to be careful. Libra Temple They met Dohko before reaching it. I didn’t specify it at the beginning of the post.

Scorpio Temple Milo and Kardia? Oh boy, someone’s getting hurt. Kardia, being the reckless fighter he is, will definitely want to fight his successor. Just to see how different they are. Cue Degél being forced to stop him because “there’s no way I’m going to drag your sorry ass when your heart catches fire”, and Milo watching as his “older” counterpart gets frozen in place. Though, he will tell Kardia how amusing the coincidence of both of them being close to an Aquarius is (friendship, love, whatever you want, these two are close).

Sagittarius Temple Right after meeting each other, how long do you think it’ll take for Aiolos and Sisyphus to start talking about their family? To brag about how much they love their lions? Don’t get Aiolos wrong, though. He is going to be the hardest Gold Saint to convince. He has to make sure they’re not there to hurt Athena, even if he trusts his companions. They will read his testament, and most of them will finally realize how painful and horrible those years of tyranny were for the Sanctuary. They will think about how Shion made the Sanctuary a livable place, and how Ares destroyed everything and betrayed everyone. Sisyphus will be the most shocked of the group, thinking back to when he took Sasha away from his family because Athena was more important, seeing himself both similar to Aiolos and completely different. It ends with a melacholic feeling permeating all the past Saints.

Capricorn Temple El Cid and Shura talking about their Excalibur is the first thing that happens. Who has the best sword? They keep arguing about it (El Cid more calmly) until Sisyphus intervenes. As soon as he learn the Shura gave Excalibus to a Bronze Saint, though, El Cid almost loses his cool. The encounter goes on without other accidents, luckily, so the Gold Saints can pass.

Aquarius Temple Degél and Kardia, thanks to what Milo told them at his temple, will try to understand what kind of person is Camus. Only to be confused and surprised at how a cold and calm man like him could actively be close to someone like Milo. Of course, right after they realize it’s the same situation they live in, so everyone moves on to more serious stuff, aka Degél trying to understand what happened in their Holy War, since learning from Saga wasn’t an option and Deathmask risked getting knocked out of existence by Manigoldo.  Obviously, the Golds of the past are even more horrified to know that, aside from Shion, five more Gold Saints chose to betray Athena, even if they didn’t really stand by Hades’ side. Sisyphus especially, since he actually experienced what was like being covered by a Surplice (I loved that scene, I have to pay homage to it).  They also learn about the Athena Exclamation used to kill one of their companions, though Camus avoids telling them of the second time they used it. After this, once the shock subsided, it’s time for the last temple. 

Pisces Temple The very first thing Albafica will do when stepping in that temple is ask Aphrodite how he manages to live the life of a Pisces Saint. There’s two possible options for this: the more canon approach, where Aphrodite doesn’t have poisonous blood, so the answer Albafica receives cannot be applied to his experience; my own approach, where Aphrodite was born with poisonous blood, and he can tell Albafica that it’s not as dangerous for other people as it might seem to him, because the problem resides in his blood, not in his general person.  On a more general note, Albafica will have a good conversation with him and will actually approach him, since they’re both Pisces Saints. His companions leave him be, because it’s the first time that Albafica gets that close to someone without feeling on edge, and even though they end up feeling a bit ill upon knowing Aphrodite was one of the real traitors of Athena in the past, they’ll leave with no incidents happening. 

I know this is a way more generic approach to the topic compared to what I would actually write, but I don’t have a clear mind at the moment and it’s difficult for me to concentrate too much on sigle characters and situations.  Also, there is one main issue with these Saints coming back to life that I didn’t tackle: how their mentality is out of place in a way more modern time like the XX century.  This is too difficult for me to elaborate now, especially with a serious approach (I often see the TLC Saints being thrown into the XX or XXI century with a comedic intent, instead of a serious one, so I don’t know how other people deal with the issue), so I avoided it.  Another problem is how Dohko and Shion would react to them. For the TLC Saints is not that big of a deal, they died back then, but Shion and Dohko survived. They outlived them, they saw them die. I made it sound really simple in this post, but I believe this kind of emotions cannot be easily summed up in a couple sentences.  And there’s the fact that some of the classic Golds betrayed Athena, a very heavy topic for a Gold Saint. Again, I made it sound simple, from Ares to the Holy War, but in reality this would take a much bigger toll on past Saints coming back. How would you react upon knowing that your successors, the people you hoped were going to protect Athena after your death, not only didn’t follow that path but also tried to kill her? It would take some time for them to understand how those Saints got a redemption. 

Again, I’m sorry for the terrible amount of time that passed since you asked me this, dear anon. I always answer asks, but sometimes I don’t have time to do so as soon as I get them.  I hope you found this at least a bit interesting, and I hope I didn’t misinterpret what you asked me. 

Have a good day, guys!

[senotsuri]

Way back when, I posted an image of an OC, who fairly recently got a full name (she only had a surname back then.) So, with Eliza’s name finally figured out, I realised I hadn’t actually given my overview of the game that spawned her; Champions of Vestroia.

Time to lose my mind, I guess.

Some fore-knowledge before we get into this.

I am, by all means, a legacy bakugan fan, not a reboot fan. I’ve only seen one double episode (the become-smaller-child episode, which was cute, and Outer Demons, which has a super good premise, but the execution is. something.) By all accounts, CoV is essentially my introduction to the world of the reboot, and I’ll come to this later.

I played both the first game (Bakugan Battle Brawlers, specifically the Wii edition), and the... third game (Defenders of the Core, shortened to DOTC, also for the Wii. The second game, for anyone curious, is Battle Trainer, a DS exclusive.) This will come up later, of course, but I want to point out these two as they’re basically my control group for the quality here (not for the battles though; different battle system and all.)

I am incredibly stay-at-home. A lot of people I know irl I don’t have contact with, and most of them don’t live in my city. This is only important when it comes to the protagonist and literally no one else in the game, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.

So the game begins with the character creator. This is pretty standard stuff, honestly. My one issue with it is just-- this is probably my fashion sense speaking, but the fashion in the game is very... for lack of a better term, naff. There aren’t many options that look good, personally speaking. This is ignoring the issues where the protagonist loses their name, mid conversation, or is referred to as if I chose the male option instead of the female option. These issues are likely just oversights, by all accounts, but talk about jarring.

The first time you see your character is where 3. comes in. The protagonist, no matter what you chose (I have two save files, in case there was a difference. There isn’t), will always be a football/soccer player. Are you one of many, many people who isn’t sporty, who is trying to play as themselves? Sorry, your character is sporty, and you can’t do anything about it.

In the legacy games, this was never really a problem; your character was never seen doing anything other than brawling and interacting with other characters. Whether they played sports, or stayed indoors and wrote fanfic, the game let you decide on that for your character, by not having them do either of those things: your character only battled, or snuck around in DOTC’s case.

Once you stop playing football, you get to run to your best friends, and I guarantee you, you won’t immediately guess who they are unless you somehow already knew.

I mentioned BBB and DOTC being my control group on quality. Bringing the character creator back into this, the NPCs are laughable in quality. Any character who has the same model as you (older child. There are only two other model types: adult, and younger child) will look like a remixed version of your character. Had it not been for some characters having special eye shapes, you could practically cosplay any character in the game, because they were made the same way you made your character.

This includes your two best friends.

You could easily make the same character (minus clothes) as one of your best friend characters, without knowing it until you saw them.

While, yes, BBB and DOTC had the characters from the legacy anime in them, the fact that your best friends are nigh indistinguishable from any other character in the area, because you could easily make any of them in the character creator, isn’t... great.

Speaking of that. Characterisation is questionable, to say the least. Whatever bakugan you have in your first slot will answer to you the same as any other bakugan you have in your first slot. If you started off with Howlkor in the front of your party, and you replaced him with, say, Barbetra, Barbetra will act the exact same as Howlkor did, and it’s really something.

There’s only (?) Armoured Alliance bakugan in the game, other than Dragonoid, Pegatrix, Trox, Hydorous, Nillious, and the afforementioned Howlkor. That’s a small roster, by all accounts, so having varied dialogue depending on the bakugan would make sense.

The characterisation of the other characters is also a little funky in places. Your best friends don’t brawl, and I honestly forgot about them for a portion of the game. The tournament brawlers are practically as faceless as the villain minions, and the villains- oh the villains...

Preston. I don’t like Preston, at all. He’s a villain from the moment you see him, and the whole “try to find Preston�� section in Helena Heights makes me want to punch someone. When you fight him in the Parasol HQ, his dad being the CEO, it’s fairly clear that Preston is little more than a tool for him. Sometime later, you fight Preston again, this time as the final tournament’s final battle, and he’s laughably weak compared to the other challengers. Remember, this kid fights you with Leonidas.

You’d think Leo would be good, but I’ll get into the butchering that happened to my death dragon later.

Anyhow, he fights you, assuming his dad will enjoy him defeating you. With the power of you’re the player character, you beat him, he hands all of his bakugan to you, and gives up on brawling for good. Kinda.

The next time you see him... hoo boy. In Old Town, on the way to defeat dear detestable dad, you come across Preston. He offers you help, and when player character is understandably suspicious, Preston complains that... one of his toys was taken away because you beat him, and now he wants Revenge On Dad.

I wish I was joking. His revenge, by helping you defeat his dad, isn’t because he’s obviously neglected by his dad (company taking priority over him, the CEO’s son), and then is used as a minion to try and get rid of you. It’s not out of bitter feelings because his dad doesn’t care about him, no, it’s because his dad took his ball away.

What’s worse is how player character reacts: “Oh! :) You’ve learned that bakugan aren’t just tools! :) Yes you can help me, despite the fact that you learning this sounds less than genuine and definitely not last minute! :)”

This is a level of stupidity I’ve only seen in DOTC Mira when Spectra tricks her into giving him Drago. He’s literally sulking and moping about over his ball, and then he sees the player character, immediately being manipulative so that player character can take down his dad for him. 

Leonidas also forgives him, and has the same reaction as the player character.

Speaking of Leonidas! I think everyone’s been excited for Leonidas in general - we all love a shark headed death dragon, and we wanted one in the reboot for ages.

I refuse to call reboot Leonidas Leonidas. This is like the Shun Kazami debacle, but one I’m substantially more angry about.

Leonidas, in BBB, was untrusting of everything, wanted to throw down with everything in sight, had no fear of anything because “I don’t fear weak [humans]”, and literally came from hell. He eventually grew to trust you and others, to calm down and enjoy himself at his own pace, and was willing to have help from others, showing anyone around him that his origins aren’t the be all and end all about him.

Leonidas, in CoV, is immediately trusting of the first human who showed a hint of kindness, has a weakness to all attacks in the game, comes from Vestroia (not the Doom Dimension), and forgives the human who threw him away when he didn’t win the battle against you for him.

Ignoring the fact that Leonidas just doesn’t look good in CoV, I’d say he got bastardised. That’s not Leonidas, it’s just a dragon with the same name.

The main villain is the CEO of Parasol, an energy company that, assumedly, used to use solar power. Upon finding out that bakugan battles give off incredible levels of power, they turned to using bakugan, forced to battle, to generate power. These guys literally dug into someone’s house to try and get Leonidas. They’re evil.

On the topic of the battling for power generation; this has a decay effect on Vestroia, as it happens, as battling energy would usually go back into Vestroia, which would be recycled and reused.

The CEO doesn’t bend the knee to you until you break him, which is undoubtedly nice for a villain; I was honestly expecting him to give up, but he doesn’t. You beat him into a corner.

But as my introduction to the world of BP, through CoV, is lackluster at best. Obviously the game is meant for those who have seen the reboot, and don’t mind being completely disconnected from the story, because CoV is self contained, and Dan only shows up to be the tutorial giver (as a jpg, no less).

From what the game tells me about the setting; bakugan are often exploited by adults, bakugan do not like adults because of this, but can’t tell when a human child is manipulating them, unless another child removes them from that situation (the lack of agency here is somehow worse than in the legacy series, who knew).

Despite bakugan being around for 18 years in the setting, no one seems to be aware that they’re living beings, other than the main charcter, as if BP humans are equivalent to Legacy’s Vestals. I was already aware of Vestroia and Earth sharing a location in space, but the fact that drilling deep enough causes bakugan to appear on Earth seems... really weird? Schrödinger’s Bakugan Summoning Pit, but they exist on every digging site possible. Bonus points to all bakugan being able to speak, and they do speak a lot, but only to the player and whoever is around the player in a cutscene.

I’m missing a lot of things, such as battle items being the worst sometimes, I’m aware, but at this point I’m tired of rambling, so let me end off in a comparison.

CoV has, in my opinion, the same replayability levels as Pokemon Shield; I couldn’t replay either game to the end, and I wouldn’t recommend either to anyone unless they were desperate for a new game to play, and had nothing else to chose.

[iaintyourbro]

Talking about FFVII and FFVIII

I started writing this a while ago - probably around June. It’s based off of this article:

Theory: FFVIII’s Squinoa was Square Enix’s Appology to Cloud and Aerith Fans

Alright, so, I came across an article stating that FFVIII’s Squinoa was Square’s apology for Cloud and Aerith. I don’t know why, but this one brought up some anger within me that I can’t explain. Mainly because it’s ridiculous.

However, it’s also an opinion article. This means Square Enix never said this. The title of the article also says “Theory” meaning there’s nothing saying this is real. You know there is a reason I’m writing this finally - well, finishing it. 

This is also gonna be long. FFVIII was my favorite FF game up until Remake came out, so it’s still very special to me. I hate that it’s treated as some type of apology for a ship. Its a game on its own. A fun one, a lighthearted one, and one that I really enjoyed replaying as an adult. 

It just so happens that I had started to replay FFVIII when I came across this article. It was recently written. I have noticed some official source articles that are leaning heavy on the C//erith side came out after Remake, even if it was regarding old content. 

Rinoa is Rinoa. Comparing her to Aerith or Tifa frustrates me, because you should just do that for all of the other main FF female characters, but if we want to do this, then we can say Rinoa is a mix of Tifa and Aerith. 

So with FF8, FF7 OG, and FF7R fresh in my mind, I thought it may be a good time to do this one. There are heavy spoilers for FF7, FF8, and FF

One of the lines in this article that threw me was saying that Rinoa was a manic pixie girl. I never got that impression from her. I’d say at times she was a bit forward, a bit flirty, and a bit immature, but they ALL were. They were 17 and 18. They were written like 17 and 18 year olds on purpose. I actually liked Rinoa, but didn’t like OG Aerith. So I definitely never compared the two. 

For the record: I LOVE REMAKE AERITH

FF7 had characters in their early 20s up to their 30s (and Vincent, but he went to sleep at like 27). FF7′s characters also had extremely tragic backstories and collectively enough mental trauma to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool. The world was dark and cruel. 

FF8 was a bit lighter on the whole tragic backstory. All of the main party members, minus Rinoa, grew up in an orphanage. Yes, you could say it’s sad that they were in an orphanage. It was war time, their parents were most likely killed. In Squall’s case, we know his mother died shortly after he was born and his father had just sent their “adopted daughter” back to Winhill, so both of them were sent to this orphanage. 

But honestly? Compare this to the orphans in Advent Children. They’re homeless, dirty, and sick. The orphans in FF8 were well fed, clothed, and had a loving “home” with Edea. 

Rinoa grew up as a rich girl, pretty much. She lived in a mansion, her father was high up in the military, and her mother was a famous singer. I’d say she had a pretty good life. Her mother does die when she’s younger, and her relationship with her father falls apart.

Here’s a Tifa parallel: Rinoa’s father is a highly regarded figure in the Galbadian army. Brian Lockhart is a highly regarded person in Nibelheim. Rinoa’s mother dies when she’s young, Tifa’s mother dies when she’s young. Tifa had a pretty good life until Sephiroth decided it was time to ruin everything.

She joins a rebel group (oh - hey another Tifa parallel) and honestly seems pretty good at what she has to say when you first meet her in Timber. She has a strategy, a plan, and explains this plan. 

Tifa was also in a rebel group. 

In Remake, Tifa was always the one to have a solution on what to do next when Cloud and Barret were scratching their heads. She was good at strategy, but she was modest about things.

Rinoa is much more forward than Tifa, by far. So, you can say that’s her “Aerith quality”. However, Rinoa also has her moments of shyness. Asking Zell about Squall’s ring for example. And honestly, the interaction between Rinoa and Zell during that scene is exactly what you’d expect with teenagers. 

The biggest thing with ALL of the FF8 characters is their severe lack of worldly experience and their immaturity. Which makes sense, they’re 17. You do get to see them all grow. Rinoa and Squall, in particular, mature quite a bit as individuals throughout the game. 

Rinoa’s affections towards Squall initially are purely based on how he looks, it seems. He’s the hot guy at the party she dances with to kill time while trying to find her target (Cid) to ask him to help The Forest Owls. Obviously her feelings grow way past just “hot dude” as the game progresses. 

In fact, Rinoa and Squall fight quite a bit in the beginning. Mainly because Squall is definitely a bigger dick than Cloud, initially. You luckily get insight in to Squall’s thoughts, so some of these dick moves make some sense. Cloud, you’re left to “interpret” what he’s thinking. Hello LTD...

Then they go on to say Quistis is like Tifa. For one, Quistis and Squall DID grow up in the same orphanage until Quistis was adopted. Quistis was “bossy” and saw herself as a big sister. With Squall, she wanted to replace “Sis” after she disappeared.  

Squall and Quistis don’t even remember each other until Irvine reminds them all. Selphie, Zell, and Seifer were all there as well. The major difference between Quistis and Tifa from a childhood friends trope perspective... Squall at no point seems to have really interacted with Quistis heavily. 

He says that Seifer and him went to Garden at around the age of 5. There is absolutely no indicator that the two of them even really interacted much. So Quistis was around until Squall was 5 - not his entire childhood. She then ends up in Garden a few years after being adopted due to issues. So during their teen years, it was her, Seifer, and Squall.

Cloud and Tifa, on the other hand, have quite a childhood trope story. His entire subconscious becomes a Tifa shrine. He makes a promise to her, takes this promise very seriously, and then they reunite in Midgar after a lot of really fucked up shit happens to both of them. 

In addition, it’s blatantly stated that Cloud has feelings for Tifa in the Lifestream. And they are deep. 

Quistis herself even questions her feelings for Squall as romantic love or more big sister love. Squall is never shown to have any interest in Quistis. We know this is not true for Cloud in regards to Tifa.

Tifa and Cloud do end up BOTH confirming their feelings for each other. Remake it making the mutual attraction very obvious early on. It’s much more slow in OG and much less obvious until you get to the Northern Crater and he starts to crack. Then it’s fully realized in the Lifestream.

If you want to say FFVIII was an apology for something, I’d say it would be for the incredibly dark plot that FFVII had in comparison. Though, I don’t think an apology was needed. I definitely don’t think there was a thought for FFVIII as apologizing for a ship. 

One thing they DID make sure to do was make the canon romance more obvious going forward. There was no more ambiguity - Squall and Rinoa, Zidan and Garnet, and Tidus and Yuna were all made obvious by the end of the game.

Oh wait, Cloud and Tifa were too... I guess the difference is there wasn’t an illusion aspect or a major character death for the future titles. FFX is one you could say there was, but that gets wiped out in X-2 when they bring Tidus back. 

[sirrriusblack]

Okay so even though nobody asked. I’ve been thinking about the whole anti-Snape situation and I just wanted to state my opinion even though, again, nobody asked.

So I don’t like Snape. I don’t think he was a good person and I’m sorry if anyone disagrees with me, feel free to explain why you think he is if you’d like. Honestly, I’m always up for a (friendly) discussion. But anyway, from what I’ve seen, most people that do like Snape justify his actions and why he was rude to Harry by talking about The Marauders, specifically James, and how they bullied him.

So it’s canon that James was a dick. I get that. The Marauders liked to play pranks and cause chaos, and they were kinda dicks. That’s fair. And note here that I don’t in any way condone bullying or abuse or the like. Anyway, it’s also canon that Severus would start fights with them first as well, and that may have been a result of their bullying, and I’m not justifying any bullying with ‘he started it’. That’s not what I’m trying to do. All I’m saying is we know that both James (and The Marauders) and Severus were known for starting fights or the like. Snape was also known to be hanging around a group of racist dicks basically. He thought it was okay to call Lily a mudblood and I understand there’s a difference in actually thinking something and accidentally blurting it out, otherwise I would hate Sirius for telling Snape about Remus’ condition too. And I don’t.

Yet Snape grew up to join Voldemort’s cause and that can’t be blamed on anything but him, really. It’s often said that you should compare Sirius and Severus. Sirius certainly could have been dragged into the wrong side with all the pressure from his family, with everything he’d learnt growing up. If he hadn’t had his friends to keep him in line, he might have. Most people then say that Snape didn’t have that guidance and he got pulled into the dark arts and etc. But he had Lily, didn’t he? It’s canon that Lily disapproved of Snape’s friends and was always trying to steer him away from the dark arts. She still hung out with him and was his friend despite what her Gryffindor friends thought of him. She stuck by him, as any good friend would do, and he stuck by her, but he didn’t take her advice. That’s the biggest difference between Sirius’ and Snape’s future; Snape didn’t take his friends’ advice, and no one is to blame there but him, really.

With that in mind, I don’t think we can say who was better or worse. Because Snape was a victim of bullying, yes, but if he did the same to The Marauders, doesn’t that make them victims too? I don’t like saying that anyway, because really, it was a four against one situation (or at least two against one from what we’ve seen). Honestly, we don’t know how often they fought, who started more fights, what their reasoning was or anything, because we can’t know enough about the situation. So I’m not going to come out here and say The Marauders were perfect, or even better than Snape. No one’s perfect and we should definitely recognise what The Marauders and what Snape did was wrong. I’m definitely not trying to excuse James’ actions by the bad things Snape did to him or the other way around. So let’s just look at them without the war, without different sides, without Lily and everything. Let’s just look at them as two teenage boys. James was a dick. Lily was right in calling him an arrogant toe-rag. He was egotistical too, what with being popular and rich and an only child. (Again, not that I’m not saying this to excuse his actions.) Snape was also a dick. He looked down on certain blood types (with the exception of Lily apparently), he was bitter from years growing up with his father and I mean, he literally came up with a spell that slices people open. So we can come to the conclusion, I think, that the boys kinda both sucked. Obviously, I love The Marauders and I recognise that James was an arrogant dick, but I still think he was a great person because the good outweighed the bad. I’m not going into it but I could write a book just about why I think James was a good person. But I also recognise that I can’t say James was a good person despite his faults, if I don’t so the same for Snape. Because, if we boil down to it, even if I don’t necessarily like saying it, I can understand why Snape could be considered a good person. He helped Lily from the start, and was her friend from the start. He defended her against her sister’s hate and the Wizarding World’s hate. He was still friends with her despite what her other friends thought of him because Lily was his best friend. He was smart and ambitious and yes, he put his talents to bad use, but you could say he was a good person as a teenager. My problem isn’t with teenage Snape, however.

Like I said (probably forty times, I’m sorry) I can recognise that Snape wasn’t a horrible person. I can understand why people like him, that’s obviously not my opinion, but I’m not here to hate on other people’s opinions, I’m just here to explain mine. My problem is with adult Snape. His adulthood is very very different to his teenage years because here, the good doesn’t outweigh the bad. Obviously his bullying as a kid would have affected him throughout his whole life, because it’s how he grew up. And it’s not fair to say that James didn’t turn out that way even though Snape supposedly started things with him just as much as he did so to Snape, because James, all in all, had a better life than Snape. So let’s instead look at Remus. Remus Lupin spent his childhood in fear. He had to sit through DADA classes where he was classified as a monster. He had to walk down the halls with people looking at his scars and judging him for them everyday. He had to keep a secret bigger than any secret he knew from his best friends. He had to think about them leaving him because they were scared, and he had to wait and wait and wait for Snape to act out his threat of exposing him. Both Remus’ childhood and adulthood was plastered with hate and threats and fear for something he couldn’t control. Yet Remus was kind. He carried chocolate around to make people feel better, he wanted nothing more than to help children grow by teaching them all he knew. He loved Harry more than anything. Him and Tonks had Teddy and he was scared he was going to hurt them, but he still stuck by because he loved them. Despite all the hate and bitterness he faced from the whole Wizarding World, Remus Lupin was still a kind, wonderful person. Remus also lost all of his best friends. James, Lily and Peter (at least he thought), were dead and Sirius (at least he thought) betrayed him and he was left with absolutely nothing. Yet he was still so full of love and kindness. I can’t personally say the same for Snape. Especially when Snape, as a very mature, very excuse-less adult, told the whole Wizarding World about Remus’ lycanthropy, which in turn got him fired and caused the Anti-Werewolf Legislation, creating more hate, poverty and difficulty for all werewolves. (I could go on, Remus Lupin deserved so much better). And yet Remus, after losing everything he had, once again, still found more love with Tonks and then Teddy.

Yes, Snape faced ridicule and hate and bitterness as a child and during school too. Yes he lost his best friend (*whispers* even though it was his fault) but if Remus could face all the hate he did and still become a great person, if Sirius could ignore all the pressure he was under to join Voldemort, then those can’t be excuses for Snape. You can’t excuse the fact that he joined a hateful, racist, discriminatory side of the war with him being bullied as a child. He chose hate because he lost something he loved. And from then on, he kept choosing hate. I’m sorry, but becoming a death eater and then changing his mind doesn’t create enough good to outweigh the bad. Changing his mind and joining the good side, to me at least, doesn’t make him good. Not when he singled out children, made fun of them, and did exactly what his so-called ‘excuse for his bitterness’ was (bullying) to hurt 11 year old children. And look, someone might prove me wrong, someone might say something that makes me reconsider the situation, but it boils down to one sentence. I can’t justify Snape’s actions if him and The Marauders were all dicks yet The Marauders (minus Peter) turned out to be a good person and Snape turned out to be… well, Snape.

I’m really not trying to start anything, by the way, I’ve just seen a lot of posts about people who don’t like Snape ‘not having any reasons to back their opinions’ and I wanted to share mine. I have a lot more reasons than this, but I feel like those reasons could probably be excused because he was ‘good in the end’. I disagree, but like I said, I don’t want to start anything. I don’t know. I’m probably going to regret posting this.

[popculturebuffet]

Scooby Doo (2002) Review: The Most Punchable Fred Jones of All Time

It’s one last hurrah for Halloween as I take a look at the often derided 2002 Scooby Doo Movie! See what happens when you combine future superstar director James Gunn with .. the guy who thought directing the Smurf’s movie and Big’s Mama’s House were good ideas. Oh and with a splash of the guy who wrote the loveable family film Cheaper by the Dozen and the utterly loathed Percy Jackson film. It’s as messy as you’d expect with that.. but is it BAD? good, so bad it’s good, just sorta okay? Come with me as I try to find out under the cut with a full review. 

I’ve always loved Scooby Doo. I grew up with the guy, watching reruns of the non-scrappy classic series from Where Are You to the Scooby Doo Movies, the three Superstar 10 movies (Boo Brothers, Ghoul School and Reluctant Werewolf), or the at the time brand new What’s New Scooby Doo. And later in life i’d absolutely adore Mystery Incorporated.. minus the whole Shaggy, Scooby Velma love triangle, but i’ll likely cover that at some point or sooner, you can comission reviews from me for 5 bucks each, 5 dollars off group orders if you really want to make me suffer through that that bad. But getting off self promotion point is I loved and still love the franchise. While I”ve yet to see “Scooby Doo and Guess Who”, though given there’s Weird Al, Kristan Schaal and Urkel episodes you can be sure i’m going to eventually, and Scoob was VERY ehhh even if Dick Dastardly was awesome. But despite my history with the great dane much like with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, despite my rich history with the franchise I haven’t dove in yet and with a friend who could use a nice halloween suprise and loves scooby doo, I figured now was the time to take a look at it.  And since i’d been wanting to take a look at it again anyway, and decided going big wasn’t a bad way to start, i’m taking a look at the 2002 Scooby Doo movie. I saw this flim first run in a drive in, and saw the sequel the same way and loved it as a kid, and fondly remember checking out the Sountrack Preview page back before youtube existed to make checking out soundtracks easier. It was a simplier time. And even rewatching it later with my nieces, I found myself liking it.  And the thing was almost every time this film comes up it’s with a turned up nose. The CGI, the confused audience, the deciding to cast Freddy Prinze Junior.. all terrible decisions that overshadow the film, when it’s not that bad. It’s not GREAT, but it’s not TERRIBLE either. So what is it then? Well i’ll tells ya. Let’s start with

PRODUCTION: Wait James Gunn Wrote This?

At the turn of the millneium Scooby Doo was back on top. After waning popularity during the Scrappy era, the advent of the warner affilated Cartoon Network meant a whole new generation of kids (raises hand) got to experince Scooby Doo for the first time. This new audeince lead to Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, the first of the franchises 80 or so DTV movies that will continue on long after the earth dies, and brought back the franchise after it’s long slumber. Scooby Doo went from dead to as popular as he was in his hey day again. Naturally Warner wanted to cash in and thus this movie was born.  Originally the film was supposed to be a more adult project, a send up of the franchise with more sex jokes and what not than made the final cut according to writer James Gunn. Yes, the same James Gunn who wrote and directed the Guardians of the Galaxy movie and whose currently saving the suicide squad. It was one of Gunn’s earlier films but just from when he’s talked about it, you can tell he genuinely cared about the project.  Along for the ride with our future Guardian was his co-writer, Craig Titely,  who i’m convinced only came in to do punch ups as the guy has only written three other movies. One of them was being one of MANY writers on Cheaper by the Dozen and thus likely not doing much of note with that, and the other.. is being the only writer on Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief’s movie adaptation.. aka the movie the fanbase and general audiences rejected in droves yet SOMEHOW got a sequel. Which is somehow still worse than his other film, one that asks “was the moon landing a hoax?” Spoilers, it wasn’t. Point is this isn’t a resume that screams co creator and more screams “Guy brought in to kid freindly this up”. More on that in a minute.  The director is another less than reassuring face: Raja Gosnell, whose credits BEFORE this film were Home Alone 3, Never Been Kissed and Big Momma’s house.. so already he dosen’t have the best track record but somehow got worse because AFTER this film and it’s sequel he directed both live action Smurfs Movies and the universally hated Show Dogs, aka the film  that thought dog rape was funny. The fact this film isn’t out and out terrible is a miracle. 

Even more so because naturally, as Studios tend to do they interfered: The film was supposed to be more adult, cracking jokes about common things fans of the series growing up thought like Velma is Gay or Shaggy’s a stoner, and having both be fully true. But wanting to appeal to kids, Warner gradually lightned it, hence Craig, and Raja clearly having no shame gladly took it instead of you know.. standing his ground.  So Velma has a love intrest thrown in and her kiss with Daphne is gone, while Shaggy’s toke smoking was lowered to subtext.. because either of those things is bad apparently? I dunno the 2000′s were fucked. 

Point is THAT’S why these films are so tonally confused and why I don’t hold it agains the film now I know: It wasn’t James Gunn or even, as dumb as he is, Raja Gosnell’s fault that the film had some tones clashing when the studio was demanding it, instead of you know, thinking this through at all and realizing more kids cared about Scooby Doo than they would’ve josie and the pussy cats instead of bringing it up DURING production, when most of the adult stuff was in there. It’s also why the sequel has no real adult stuff, though it’s STILL damn good, but i’ll get to that some other day. 

The film was also shot at an actual theme park in australia. Neat. 

So yeah the film’s humor kind of ping pongs between knowing adult winks and kids stuff. We get Scooby dressing like a grandma in the same film shaggy enhales his demon possed love intrests breath like weed. The jokes themselves on average are pretty good: Some of my faviorites include the grandma scene, everything rowan atkinson does, Velma getting drunk off her ass, and the instructional video bit which is easily my favorite bit of the episode and one of my faviorite scooby doo jokes period:

This is even FUNNIER to me on rewatch, as we now know this is an instructional video for demons.. and that Scrappy clearly had enough problems with his demon horde to have to pay for this thing. It tis glorious.  However there also are also a few that HAVE NOT aged well, are very creepy at best and disgusting sexual assault at worst with Daphne getting her ass grabbed by the Luna Ghost at the start being treated as a joke and Fred oggling Daphne’s body when he’s in it being treated as a ha ha and not...

So yeah the humor’s USUALLY good, but the slipups are noticable and do bring things down a bit when they come by. So the humor is decent if mixed and the production’s a nightmare, how’s the plot? The Plot: Scoob, We’re Getting the Band Back Together!

I won’t be as through as usual because this is a 90 minute movie, I’m running behind as is and it’s 20 years old, 

We start with your standard mystery inc case with the Luna Goose, aka Old Man Incel who resented Pamela Anderson for not boning him. But Fred hogging the glory during the resulting News Cast leads the gang to start fighting over lingering tensions: Velma is tired of Fred hogging all the credit when she does most of the legwork solving things, Daphne is tired of being kidnapped and being mistreated by Velma and Freddy who laugh at the idea of her doing more, and Fred..

We’ll get to him later. Shaggy is the only one wanting to stick together, but no one’s having it and the group breaks apart and Matthew LIllard REALLY sells Shaggy’s heartbreak over his friends all abandoning him well. 

Two years later though, with Shaggy and Scooby naturally getting stoned and eating large quantities of food on the beach, have made peace with retirement, and have apparently had to duck tons of people coming to them to solve mysteries since they aren’t about that. The latest in that line is a man representing Emile Mondovarius, the owner of Spooky Island, a vast island resort and theme park. Naturally since it has spooky in the name the boys want nothing but Mondovarius does what honestly every previous guy coming to them should’ve done: offers them an all you can eat buffet.  Since they’ve done more traumatizing for Dog Treats, they agree and it soon turns out the entire gang was invited, though none of them but Shaggy and Scooby are happy to see each other. I will say one of my complaints about the film is it never tackles the emotions behind the breakup: while the teams slowly repairs there are never any outright apologizes or scenes of them recociling or scenes of Shaggy chewing them out for abandoning him due to their spat. It just skips over the emotional bits to either wave a joke for the kiddies around or scream 

Really the jokes aren’t bad, the film just has trouble with actual emotion or depth that could’ve been there and tries for it once in a while, but dosen’t really do anything with it. The gang splitting up’s a good concept, and at this point on Scooby Doo on Zombie Island had really used it, and that was one where they were clearly still close friends and were still in touch they just quit mystery solving for a while till Zombie Island happened. Mystery Incorpreated would finally give this story justice later: Instead of over a petty ego squabble, the gang broke up over underlying tensions: The revelations about Fred’s dad caused him to go try and find himself, Velma alienated herself by hiding things from them, and Shaggy was shipped off to Military School and Scooby doggy prison camp... thankfully the last two didn’t last and Scooby rescued Shaggy with a tank but the tension DIDN’T go away: While the gang mostly reunited, Velma took time to forgive them and also tried bringing in the friend/girlfriend she’d made in the meantime only for her friends to isolate her and throw her out while Daphne took her time to return due to being hurt by fred. It’s complex and good stuff versus here where it’s just “WE’RE APART BECAUSE WE HATES EACH OTHER. And now we’re NOT”. It’s just a waste of a good concept and i’ m glad the franchise got around to doing it right. 

But my gripes aside our heroes head to the resort and meet Mondevarious, who admits outright to having tricked then and with confronted with the gang being broken up, makes it clear he knews.  “That’s the thing about broken things.. you can put them back together.”

And so he did. He needs the Gang’s help as he’s worried about the island and something going wrong there: The teens are leaving polite, well behaved. and clearly not themselves as one reacts to an old friend by neck lifting him and tossing him aside. Something’s deeply wrong here and the gang’s intrest is piqued enough to stay though everyone but Shaggy is determined to solve it themselves out of ego. Mondvarius is played by Rowan Atkinson and while I watched the bean movie as a kid this is where I fell in love with the guy, with later watches of Blackadder confirming that in my college years. Rowan just brings a fun dorky energy to the character and a nice earnestness too but when he later takes a turn for the bad, he does that well too. Atkinson is HIGHLY underated in my opinon and easily the MVP of this film’s supporting cast.   So the investigation begins, and we get our supsects: The first we met on the plane, Mary Jane, a kind blonde played by Isla Fisher who got the job becasue Gosnel, in a rare good decision, saw how talented she was and while still picking Sara Michele Gellar for Daphne, made sure she had  a part. She’s a nice sweet girl who Shaggy falls for and Scooby’s annoyed by it.. though unlike earlier the film beats mystery inc easily here as it’s a more understandable conflict and dosen’t act like Dog Issues is a thing people says. Again i’ll get to that clusterfuck of an arc some day. The other two are N’Goo Tuna, a shady worker at the park who spouts off the legends of the island. In a nice twist, he’s NOT the vilian, as is obvious but is his right hand man. He also has his own right hand and muscle in Zarkos a cool looking Luchador and N’Goo’s muscle. Also N’Goo may be one of the worst names in Scooby Doo History, and that includes Dabba Doo. But the legend claims the island was once owned by demons who want revenge since the resort took the island from him. 

The other is probably my faviorite non Rowan Atkinson character, Voodoo Maestro, played by Miguel Nunez. He’s basically just a guy who lives on the fringes of the island and also hates the resort and tries using voodoo curses. He’s honestly a delight from his attempt to sacrifice a chicken (An already dead one at that), to his general hammy and annoyed at dealing with these teenagers demeanor. NAturally he has nothing to do with this but he’s still a fun addition and I wish he was in more scnenes than the two he gets.  But with what they’ve gathered the gang all end up at a spooky castle attraction, with Scooby and Shaggy of course being bribed by daphne while Velma and Fred show up indpeendntly and end  up finding the weird training video from earlier but all get caught when the traps are activiated> There’s also a farting contest which.. eh not funny to me but i’ve seen so much worse i’m not even remotely upset. But then the traps trigger though during the chaos Fred and Velma are forced to work together and finally start doing so, and Daphne finds a clue: A mysterious pyramid known as the damon righus and finally gets some, if not nearly enough, credit.  So the gang is back together.. even if it’s a tenative peace, the high from solving this and relay to their boss the suspects, including him, though Fred assures Mondovarius it’s just because he’s spooky and rowan’s character’s delight over that is fucking glorious.  So the gang enjoys some down time at the local bar, with Fred and Daphne doing their own look ins, Scooby and Shaggy eating and encountring mary again and Velma getting hit on by a dude while looking over the ritus, revealing it’s some sort of soul sucking aparatus, and going into their history... which is really just an excuse to bring Scrappy in who in this universe, is a horny egotistical little shit whose abandoned as a result. ANd before anyone boos he’s not a puppy here, he’s got.. dog dwarfisim.. which while .. how does that even work... means he’s a grown ass man and deserved this. We also get drunk velma and Linda Caredenlli is a delight

The night gets interupted by terrible cgi monsters, the aformentioned emon who soul suck most of the college kids present and also get fred and velma who both find out these are very much real. We also get the best song on the soundtrack, man with a hex. It slaps. But it makes good chase music as with Mondvarious, Fred and Velma captured, the rest of the gang and mary escape.  The next morning we get a surreal as hell scene as everyone’s partying, Fred’s talking in slang and Velma with clevage, thank you, is chatting up.. Sugar Ray? For those younger of you they were a band at the time. They were a big thing. Not half bad but faded away. They looked as 2000′s as hell though. WHy Smash Mouth gets all the memes and not them is beyond me. Look at lead singer Mark McGrath!It’s like the early 2000′s gained sentience and took a human form. But the gang is quickly forced to run from sugar ray, though they get Daphne in a deleted scene. Why it was deleted I dunno. Point is Shaggy, Scooby and Mary are all alone.. oh and Mary’s possessed. Shaggy and Scooby argue over it because Shaggy just thinks Scooby is jealous and while he is .. why would he lie about this? He’s as cowardly as you are. But Scooby falls through the floor, and Shaggy is now going solo but luckily finds his friends souls, and eveyrone elses in a massive cool looking vat and frees them all.  Velma, when the demon leaves her and confronts her, finds out sunlight kills the demons and saves Daphne from hers... only to find Fred in her body. Daphne is naturally horrified and we do get a great bodyswapping scene.

Our heroes reconvince on the beach where htey find the Maestro who explains what’s going on to a point, with the gang’s clues filling in the blanks: The ritus, which they stole back earlier, is used for a ritual that will allow the Demons to rule over the earth for “a thousand years of darkness” but it requires a pure soul to work. Cue our big bad talking Scooby into being their willing sacrifice since Scooby dooes not understand what a sacrifice is.  Shaggy naturally rallies the group to go save him after their understandably worried since they usually dealt with weirdos in costumes and not the apocalypse.. well okay Velma and Fred aren’t, Daphne dealt with this kind of thing once a week back in Sunnydale. So they set up a plan to destroy all the demons at once by unleashing the soul bath, setting them all loose and then using a spooky disco ball from one of the attractions rigged up over the ritual area to shine the light in. It’s classic scooby doo. 

Things naturally go wrong as while Shaggy goes to rescue scooby and makes up with him, he’s caught, so are fred and velma and they have to scramble, while Daphne looses a fight with the luchador up top while trying to let the light in to finish the trap. Meanwhile Shaggy saves Scooby’s soul just as Mondovarious sucks it out by shoving the guy.. revealing him to be a robot! DUN DUN DUN. And inside is Scrappy.. which you all probably knew already but try to act suprise who wanted to conquer the world as revenge for the gang abandoning him and because again, in this universe he’s kind of an asshole. He absorbs the souls gathered so far and merges with the damon ritus, because we’re operating on video game rules now apparently, so final boss time.  But we get a great climax as Scrappy chases scooby, Daphne goes buffy on Zarkos ass , and as a result he shatters the glass and lets the light in releasing the disco ball the kill the demons.. man I love that I get to type things like that. Scooby removes the ritus and defeats his nephew and the day is saved. Velma hooks up with random guy, Daphne and Fred get together, I die inside a little and Shaggy and Mary Jane bond. At the press Fred does his good deed for the movie by letting Velma explain things and get the spotlight and the group have firmly reunited. THE END. Overall it’s a solid plot, that works well, comes together in the end and was well put together, it’s more the filling that causes it to tilt back and forth a bit, but overlal outside of the issue I mentioned it’s a good scooby doo plot. While some have pointed out it is similar to zombie island, a case reuniting the gang, the person who brought them there wanting to sacrifice them, or just scooby here, monsters being real, it works because everything else is so different. But since there’s more to break down and it’s easier to give it it’s own section let’s look at...

THE CHARACTERS: NOT HALF BAD, FRED CAN GO FUCK HIMSELF. 

So we’re down to character.. and since there’s a blonde, preeening, selfish, arrogant, sleazy, sexist, obnoxious, loud mouthed, useless elephant in the room, let’s start with Fred. And to quote it’s always sunny....

Yeah so that fury of a thousand crashing waves (Cracks Knuckles): Fred is the worst part of this movie, the worst version of the character across the entire franchise that i’ve seen with the sincre doubt that there is ANY version worse than this. Everything I said above is true and THEN some. He is one of the most unlikable characters i’ve seen in a film that wasn’t INTENDED to be. There’s just NOTHING to like about him. Nothing. He treats his “Friends” like garbage, all four of them: He basically ignores shaggy and scooby at best and treats them as if they were nothing. For Velma he’s your classic power abusing douche who pushes her to the side and often steals the credit for things she did. He’s still a good mystery solver, but he acts like he does all the work to the press and takes all the credit when Velma works as hard as he does if not harder. And worst of all is Daphne, who he basically either treats like some moron who gets kidnapped due to incompetence and not because creepy old dudes want to feel her up, which given the intro is VERY likely the reason she’s the resident victim of the group, and not like a person, or like a pair of boobs and legs he wants to bang or feel up creepily while he’s in her body. For fuck’s sake his reaction to finding out he’s in her body is a creepy and smug “I can see myself naaaakeddd” If that dosen’t make you want to smack him get off my blog. And they get together in the end! 

Who who wanted that. I genuinely want the presumibly original ending where Daphne and Velma hook up and Fred falls off a pier and is never seen again. The acting does not help. While the other four gang members are expertly cast Fred was given to Freddy Prinze Junior, who made a career out of playing arrogant dicks who are somehow the main character so I can’t fault the casting but I can fault that he can’t delver any line without that smug air of trying to be cool douche and it’s at it’s worst with Fred since Fred’s already written as the biggest creepiest douche in the world and Freddy somehow makes it WORSE. He also has zero chemstiry with Daphne, which would be weird given he and Sarah Michelle Gellar had dated for 2 years at this point and as of this writing have been together for 20 overall and have two wonderful kids together... but given how badly written Fred is here, I can’t blame either of them. And i’m sure FPJ is a swell guy, loves his kids loves his wife seems like a really plesant guy, nothing against him as a person, but at least at this point in his career he wasn’t very good. And I am actually planning on trying to seek out one of his later works in his career to see if he’s gotten better in recent years, and willing to give him the benifit of a doubt that he probably has. I just don’t like him here, and while the script does most of the work he only makes it worse.And works before this (Pup Named Scooby Doo) and after this (Mystery Incorperated) would prove you can give fred a personality that’s not dick tip, so fuck this character, fuck the writing.. and I hope Freddy is having a happy halloween with his loving wife and children, seriously I meant it I have nothing against him as a person. A terrible actor can still be a WONDERFUL guy. 

Now that’s thankfully put to bed, let’s pivot over to Shaggy, whose easily the best of the cast. Matthew Lillard looks the part pefectly, has the right combination of heart and goofus and has some great comedic timing. Granted Scream had already proven the guy’s got genuine talent, but still he’s great here and is currently playing Shaggy in most films and productions, except Scoob which.. was far from it’s only mistake but easily the biggest. There’s not much else to say: the guy IS Shaggy and is the only person whose taken up the roll to equal Kasey Casem in it. As for how he’s written.. he’s basically the same and apart from one line of him wanting to leave everyone to their deaths, which feels like it was added later, he’s written really well and is easily the most likeable of the group. 

Scooby is alright. Not the best version but funny and charming enough when he needs to be and while I hated the CGI at one point.. it’s honestly not that bad. It’s not GREAT, but time has actually been very good to it both in how it’s held up and in the fact we’ve gotten SO MUCH WORSE with so much better techlogies. I mean.. Cats exists.. Marmaduke Exists.. the Bill Murray Garfield exists. This was offputting at the time but now it’s just okay. But character wise he’s good and again not much diffrent. 

Velma is the second best casting of the movie. Played by Linda Cardenelli, who i’ve harbored a crush on for a good few decades now and admire mostly for her talent and charm, Linda kills the roll and easily slips into it as easily as Matt did, and while not picking it up full time like he did, still did it a few times afterword and played hot dog water in mystery incorperated, so she did finally get to play a Lesbian Velma it just took a while. And while Velma being gay is kind of sterotyping, it would’ve been nice to have been kept in instead of edited out for bullshit reasons. But overal her character is decent: While she ALSO bullies and belittles daphne like fred, unlike fred it comes less from just being a douche and more from insecurity. As her scene at the bar makes clear she feels undervalued like the other, like the nerd who the cool kids LET hang out with them instead of part of the team. While it dosen’t make her treatment of Daphne OKAY, it makes Velma understandable. We also get Velma Clevage which.. okay not sure if the world needed that but whatever. Point is it’s throughly likeable portryal that I wish got some character growth.  Finally out of the main 5 there’s Daphne, whose alright. Not as good as the other two, as it feels they lean a bit too heavily on her having taken self defense and wanting ot be tougher, but Sarah Michelle Gellar gives her a ton of charm and likeablity that her husband’s character sadly lacks. There’s just a fun, adorable energy to daph that ends up coupling with her buffy style badassery at the end and Sarah plays both beautifully. The script didn’t give her a ton to work with, though that’s the same for all four of htem, but Sarah really made the character work and made her somewhat memorable despite not being as good as Linda or Matthew. Basically not the best, but still a comfortable third ahead of scooby doo and jackass jones. 

As for the rest of the cast, Rowan Attkinson i’ve covered and is utterly fantastic as is the Voodoo Maestro, and both should get hteir own hbo max spinoff together. The minons.. stupid name and luchadoor are decent enough, nothign special but they have presence and do the job of goon well. And Mary Jane is alright.. the joke is WAY too on the nose to be funny and she’s mostly just there to be sweet, but she’s harmless. Not good but not bad.  So finally we have our big bad, Scrappy. And i’m.. mixed about this. On one hand, Scott Innes, who it turns out is also from Missouri good on you dude!, does a terrific job and I couldn’t tell it wasn’t don messick as Scrappy and he plays him as evil great. On the other.. it’s just kinda goofy. Out of all the tips of hte hat to scooby stuff this feels the most over the top. Scrappy was hated, including by james gunn.. so he’s the bad guy. It’s just a bit on the nose, and the twist is pretty easily teligraphed since Scrappy suspciously is mentioned in one scene so him showing up at all is pretty easy to see coming. It’s not terible but it’s not great. His demon minons also just suck.. the designs are wonky and their cgi, unlike scooby and scrappy’s, is just REALLY bad and dated, and even as a kid I never liked them. 

FINAL THOUGHTS:  Scooby Doo is a decent but messy movie. The clashing tones, dated humor and godawful version of fred drag it down at times, and it’s very clear this had a lot of hands in the pot. But.. I still enjoy it. It’s not the best scooby ever, tha’ts mystery incorpeated, but it has great atmosphere, some good ideas, an utterly spectacular with one exception cast, and some really funny jokes. I genuinely feel the film is overhated when it’s a unique, weird and wonderful slice of Scooby. For better or worse there’s no other Scooby doo property quite like it, and that’s what makes it so fun. And it has enough good performances and jokes to smooth out the edges. It’s not the best, it’s a mess.. but sometimes a mess is fun and I like this flim for being a fun mess I can enjoy with my nieces and talk about to all of you. And sometimes that’s all you need.  Thank you for reading this. If you like this you can comission your own review: 5 bucks for a tv episode, 15 for a movie, 10 for an hour long special, and 5 dollars off when you order more than one episode of a show at a time. Just send me a direct message or ask on here and we’ll get started. Until then you can check out my backlog of reviews, check this space every monday for ducktales reviews, and VOTE DAMMIT VOTE. Until we meet again it’s been a pleasure. Play us out Atomic Fireballs, it’s been a wonderful halloween. 

[tessatechaitea]

Justice League International #9 (1988)

I guess that means Black Canary will have to defeat the Manhunters.

I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy when I was twelve and I'll admit that I thought Éowyn killing the Witch-king was a pretty good twist on the prophecy that he would not be killed by the hand of man. Later, as I got old enough to despise everything in the world because my sense of wonder had been worn down to a nub like a well-used eraser, I realized twelve year old me was a credulous little rat bastard who wouldn't know a good twist if it jumped up out of the lake as a drowned zombie boy and pulled him under just when he thought the film was over and he was safe. Wait a second. I don't want to discuss Éowyn anymore! Maybe I'll get back to it but I've just realized something more important. If Jason had drowned and remained a little boy from 1957 to 1979, how does he become a grown ass adult in the subsequent movies?! I suppose serious Friday the 13th fans believe Alice simply imagined being pulled into the lake, since the police found no trace of a small boy. And the actual Jason didn't drown at all but received such severe brain damage that he decided to live in the woods like Grizzly Adams. Maybe he didn't even remember his mother until she showed up to murder all those counselors and he learned who he was by observing the first movie from the woods. Then we was all, "Man! That woman killed Ma! I'll show her you can't behead my Ma and not get beheaded yourself!" Hmm, that was too easy to solve once I spent any time at all thinking about it. I wonder how many hours I could lose looking up what actual fans of the franchise think? I'll never know though because I dislike fans and fan theories almost as much as I dislike my twelve year old self for being so amazed by the Éowyn twist! Maybe the Éowyn twist is just as good as I thought it was 37 years ago. It's not like I've ever gone back to re-read The Lord of the Rings. I've only read a handful of books more than once in my life and have never re-read a book immediately after reading it until now with Gravity's Rainbow. You can blame Thomas Pynchon on my lack of reading comic books lately because his book was so fucking good and had so much going on that I had to read it again immediately. This issue takes place during the big DC Millennium event so it might be a bit confusing for me. I'll be damned if I'm going to dig through one of the forty comic book boxes lying around just to find Millennium to read before this.

No thanks! I think I'll just muddle through!

Remember when DC had huge events that crossed over into every single comic they put out but were totally boring and inconsequential and didn't have "METAL!" in the title? I'm so glad those days are over and Scott Snyder has made crossover events super fucking hardcore and radical again! *five minutes of mouth guitar noises*

Oh! Is this some of that Éowyn-like prophetic foreshadowing?!

Rocket Red #7 has to be the most lame attempt at having a team member betray the team, especially since he's immediately replaced by Rocket Red #4. "Whoa! What a twist!" I probably thought back at my still tender and rat-bastardly age of sixteen. Rocket Red #7 comes right out and tells everybody that he's a Manhunter. I guess part of the Manhunter philosophy is to first try and recruit man. If unsuccessful, only then do you hunt man. Batman explains to Manhunter Rocket Red #7 how to painfully shove offers like that up excretory orifices. After Black Canary gets on his ass several times for not including her in his exclamations of "gentlemen," Manhunter Rocket Red #7 learns to say, "No man—or woman—can escape the Manhunters!" So I guess no Éowyn twist this time. Hell, I'll probably never learn the twist for how the Manhunters can be defeated because that's the kind of plot point that's going to take place in the actual Millennium issues. And I probably won't re-read those for another few years!

"Suck on this, manhunter!" was my most commonly used phrase in college.

Black Canary is so concerned about gender equality maybe she should be scolding Batman for not hiring any other women. Rocket Red #7 beats the shit out of everybody inside the ship (not Beetle's Bug for some reason probably explained in Millennium #1) and then flies out to stand on top of it and not say he's king of the world because Titanic wasn't the huge breakout romantic hit it would be a decade later. What a great movie! It had everything! Boobs, guns, people dying. Like an Agatha Christie novel but with boobs! Once Rocket Red #7 is outside of the ship, the members of the Justice League with actual, non-screaming-related super-powers take notice of him. That's because they're flying to show off to the others their super powers. The characters I'm talking about are Guy Gardner and Martian Manhunter. Booster Gold is also flying outside the ship but he's just a small town thief with a Legion flight ring and a force field. He doesn't even have a manly bulge in this super tight suit! One thing I learned that maybe I knew once but probably not for long because I don't think it was ever front loaded as part of his characterization is that Rocket Red (like all Rocket Reds) is a techno-empath. That means his suit allows him to control technology by crying or getting angry. If you know for a fact that it means something else, just keep it to yourself, okay? This isn't fucking Wikipedia. It's a stupid joke review blog that, most of the time, forgets to even review the comic book. Nobody knows how to stop Rocket Red #7 from crashing the ship into a Bialian oil refinery because if they try to stop him, he'll blow up the ship and kill everybody inside. Which, you know, will happen anyway if it crashes into the oil refinery. So I don't know why nobody tries to stop him anyway. They just fly ahead to save civilians. Luckily Rocket Reds #1-...I don't know, 53 (minus #7) save the day! I guess they use their Techno-Empathy to shut down Rocket Red #7's eyeballs.

Oh yeah, Rocket Red #7 dies here. I mean, not here, exactly, because nobody stops the Manhunters. He dies a little later after the jump scare out of the pile of debris scene.

Max Lord consults his mysterious robotic sounding friend about the Manhunter threat but the dumb thing doesn't know any more than he does. Lord mentions that the Manhunters have gotten close to all of their potential recruits while looking at a monitor with those recruits. One of them is Halo and Geoforce from The Outsiders! Oh why oh why couldn't Halo have become a member?! Halo was my pre-Sailor Moon role model. I think I've just always wanted to be a hot young woman. Oh yeah. Didn't Doctor Jace turn out to be a Manhunter? The story ends with Maxwell Lord's personal assistant shooting him because she was also a Manhunter. How all these people were Manhunters, I'll never know! I suppose it's like when you've been playing a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for four months and suddenly one of the NPCs turns out to be a polymorphed dragon and you're all, "Holy shit! What a twist! This DM is devious!" But in reality, the DM only thought up the twist thirty minutes before that night's campaign. It's pretty much exactly like that. Every writer at DC must have gotten a memo from editorial that read: "One of your characters needs to be a Manhunter. It doesn't matter which one but it would be a lot more exciting if they were an important part of the team!" And Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatties read their memo, shrugged, and concluded they were only willing to rid themselves of Max Lord's secretary and the stupid, replaceable Rocket Red. A second short story finishes up this issue. It's about Jack-o-lantern of the now defunct Global Guardians being wooed by Bialian Rumaan Harjavti. He wants a super group of terrorists to threaten the Western world with. I guess they'll become Bialya's version of Qurac's Jihad. If it ever comes together, of course. Jack-o-Lantern would just be using Rumaan's money and support to get a new global team together. Probably. Justice League International #9 Rating: B. Did you know China has a university called the China University of Mining and Technology? That acronym is so close to being disgusting! Some translator should point it out so they can come up with a synonym for "mining" that begins with an "n" so they can sell a ton of school merch to the West.

[chameleonwritess]

Feels Like Home (Ch 1)

Myriad of Stars

Not-So-Secretly in Love

Feels Like Home (Ch1 | Ch2 | Ch3)

Forever Starts Today (Epilogue)

Extras:

Infirmary Duties

Fandom: Percy Jackson

Pairing: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace

Nico's summer has been amazing thanks to Will but he isn't ready to face the following year when it ends. He knows there are going to be a lot of changes this year and that frightens Nico. Luckily, Will is there for him through everything.

Word Count: 7446

Read the whole Myriad of Stars series on AO3

Chapter 1- Demigods and Parents

Nico di Angelo was pretty sure that he’d had the best summer of his entire life.

Minus almost being destroyed by Gaia, of course, but he was grouping that with the rest of the year which had, quite frankly, been dreadful.

Still, as soon as the impending threat had vanished, Will Solace had stepped into Nico’s life and suddenly everything seemed to make sense. Nico had found not only a place where he belonged and could be himself but a person with whom he belonged and could be himself with. As the son of Hades, that in itself was a miracle Nico had never seen coming.

The fact that Will was attractive, funny, caring, utterly charming and the most infuriating demigod Nico had ever met just made everything so much better.

Of course, summer didn’t last forever, though. Nico knew it didn’t and yet he’d somehow hoped it would, causing reality to crash down around him during the last week of the holidays.

“My mom’s picking me up from Camp next week,” Will announced very suddenly one afternoon whilst the two were sitting inside Nico’s cabin, playing with some of Nico’s old mythomagic cards for the sake of nostalgia and because the two of them were huge nerds.

Nico’s eyes snapped up immediately.

“You’re going home?” he asked in a slightly strangled voice. So much for concealing his emotions.

“Not exactly,” Will said. Nico raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what that was supposed to mean.

“Meaning?”

“Well, I go to school but not properly,” Will started to explain, “We need a healer at Camp all the time and now that Lee’s dead, I’m the best healer we’ve got.”

“How does that work, then? I thought school was a full time thing?” Nico asked. He knew he’d been to school in Italy but the memories were very faint. He hadn’t even thought about going to school since; he’d always been too tied up in monsters, Titans, giants or whatever else was deciding to destroy the world.

“It usually is. My mum has a special agreement with the headteacher, though. I go to school for a few weeks each term so that I can collect all the work and then I return to Camp so that no one dies from falling off the lava wall or getting a leg sliced off in Capture the Flag,” Will explained.

“So you won’t be gone for long?” Nico checked. Will chuckled.

“Why, you gonna miss me?” he teased, nudging Nico’s leg with his own. Nico rolled his eyes.

“I was just thinking about how peaceful Camp would be without you. No Jackson bugging me, no Grace bugging me, no you bugging me,” he said wistfully.

“Hey!” Will complained, “we only bug you because we love you. Besides you were totally upset when I said I was going home after summer.”

“Was not,” Nico spluttered.

“Was too,” Will retorted.

“Not.”

“Too.”

“Alright, shut up, of course I was going to miss you,” Nico finally relented, shoving Will, who had decided to lean his body right over Nico’s, in the chest. It was suddenly dawning on Nico just how much he would miss Will, though.

Even before they’d started dating, Nico had still spent the majority of his time with Will and over the last month or so the two had practically been inseparable. Now he was going to have to go for weeks without seeing him. Nico already felt suffocated. Never had he expected to become so reliant on one person.

“Ha, that’s pretty gay,” Will smirked in retaliation to Nico pushing him. Nico inhaled deeply.

“I changed my mind, can you leave today?” he deadpanned. Will laughed and flopped down on his back besides Nico on the bed.

“I’m bored of mythomagic,” he stated.

“You get bored easily,” Nico shrugged.

“True, but I wanted to ask you something,” Will replied, looking up at Nico from the bed from what Nico assumed was not a very flattering angle on his behalf.

“Go on, then,” Nico encouraged with an unenthusiastic eye roll to accompany it.

“It’s going to be weird spending time apart after we’ve spent all summer together so I was wondering if you wanted to come over and stay at mine during the first weekend? My mom will love you, I can sense it, and she’s always happy to let my friends stay over,” Will offered.

Nico swallowed a lump in his throat. Meeting Will’s mom had not been something he’d ever even considered and being new to the twenty-first century, never mind just dating, made Nico panic a little that he had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to act around a mother.

The only parental figure in his life was Hades and Nico doubted he could just nip down to the Underworld to pay his dad a visit and ask a few questions about his love life. It wasn’t really the father-son relationship they had.

“Don’t worry,” Will jumped in, noticing Nico’s hesitance, “it’s just an offer and I don’t want you to feel like you have to. I know you’ve probably not done anything like that before but just so you know, my mom is lovely. She’s the kindest woman I’ve met. She already knows I’m gay and will be so thrilled to meet you. I can already tell she’s going to love you.”

Nico raised an eyebrow. People didn’t exactly have a habit of ‘loving’ him upon first encounters.

“Really?” Nico asked, surprising even himself at how weak his voice sounded. Will sat up on the bed and placed his hands on Nico’s shoulders, forcing him to look into his dazzling blue eyes.

“I mean it. I’ve never disliked you and people say the two of us are pretty similar. She’s also one of the most stubborn people I know. When I was younger she’d keep me quarantined if I got a slight tickle in my throat so if you think I’m bad, wait till you meet her,” Will reassured Nico. He smiled slightly at Will’s anecdote.

“It’s hard to imagine anyone more stubborn than you,” Nico smirked.

“I’m not just Apollo’s good looks and charms, y’know,” Will teased, sending Nico a wink. Nico laughed at the action and allowed his head to fall against Will’s chest.

“I’ll think about it,” Nico agreed. Will wrapped his arms around Nico’s chest and kissed the top of his head.

“Thank you,” he said, “it means a lot to me.”

Nico still felt anxiety bubble up inside of him at the thought of spending a weekend with Will’s mother but after everything Will had done for him, this was the least he could do in return, especially if it meant a lot to Will.

He just wished it didn’t feel like such a big deal to him.

Will had to return to his own cabin before long (ever since it was confirmed that the two were together, the Apollo cabin had taken to threatening Will in order to ensure he returned back each night) and Nico was left to his own thoughts.

He knew how much Will’s mother meant to him. It wasn’t really school that Will was going home to- it was Naomi Solace. He always spoke so highly of her which just made Nico even more anxious. Normally, he didn’t care what people thought of him. The first time he’d realised he cared about what Will thought of him was when he’d begun to realise that he viewed Will as a little more than just ‘that annoying healer’.

Still, he hadn’t exactly gone out of his way to ensure Will actually liked him. Never before had he felt the need to make a dedicated effort to ensure someone didn‘t dislike him..

It was terrifying.

Nico also had literally no clue how he was supposed to interact with his boyfriend’s mother. The only adults he ever even spoke to were Chiron, Mr D, Hades and occasionally Persephone if he was in the mood for an argument. All of whom were immortal beings- definitely not mortal mothers.

Feeling Cabin 13 growing gradually stuffier as his panic increased, Nico stood up abruptly and decided he needed to take a walk outside to calm his nerves and get some fresh air. It was still half an hour until curfew so luckily, the cleaning Harpies wouldn’t be around to tear his flesh apart just yet.

Instead of wandering to Nico and Will’s usual spot, Nico continued further down until he was sat by the far edge of the canoe lake where few campers ever seemed to go. Nico himself rarely sat by this side of the lake, despite its proximity to the Hades cabin.

If Nico had been hoping for some brooding time to himself, though, he was severely disappointed as a tall, dark figure appeared from the darkness of the trees and made his way to Nico’s side. Nico had recognised him immediately.

“Father,” he greeted, sounding distinctly unimpressed with Hades’s sudden appearance.

“Hello, son. It’s been a while,” Hades commented. Nico looked at him sternly.

“You closed off the Underworld so I couldn’t enter,” he pointed out. Hades chuckled nervously, a sound that seemed utterly strange coming from the Lord of the Underworld.

“That I did. I apologise. It wasn’t to prevent you or Hazel from entering, I assure,” Hades said awkwardly. Nico let out a sigh.

“What is it that you want?” he asked. Whilst Nico knew he saw his Dad far more than other demigods saw their Olympian parents, Hades still only tended to appear when he wanted something from him. Either that or he was going to gift him a skeleton chef to go with his skeleton Chauffeur, Jules-Albert.

“I just wanted to catch up with you, Nico,” Hades said simply. Nico raised an eyebrow.

“That’s unnerving,” he commented. Hades sighed.

“I still can never tell if you’re being sarcastic or not,” he complained. Nico shrugged. He wasn’t entirely sure whether he was or not, himself.

“Anyway,” Hades continued, “the Apollo sprout.”

Nico’s cheeks flushed, “Wait, this is about Will?”

“Oh, that’s his name. I couldn’t remember if it was Bill or Will. Yes. You seem… infatuated with him, correct?” Hades asked. Nico groaned and placed his head in his hands. The last conversation he’d ever wanted to have with his father was about his love life.

“Do you have to talk to me about this?” he asked.

“I’m not allowed to get involved with my son’s personal life?” Hades questioned. Nico nearly willed the ground to open up and swallow him. He was tempted to do it had he not known that Hades would just follow him anyway.

“Fine, yes, I’m happy with him. If you have a problem with it I don’t care,” he snapped. Hades looked almost taken aback.

“I have no problem. In fact, I’m quite relieved. He isn’t Jackson or Grace and he has a good sense of humour,” Hades said in an almost approving tone. Nico’s father’s words suddenly sunk in. How did Hades know that Will had a sense of humour?

“Have you been watching me?” Nico spluttered. If Hades skin hadn’t still been so deathly pale, Nico would have thought he was going red.

“Not exactly. I just like to check up on you sometimes. I noticed an abnormal amount of laughing so wanted to assure you were okay,” Hades explained. Now it was Nico’s turn to go red.

“Yeah, well, he does have a good sense of humour,” he mumbled. Hades nodded thoughtfully.

“Invite him down for dinner,” Hades suggested, “I’d like to meet him personally.”

“Please don’t threaten my boyfriend,” Nico begged, thinking how strange it was to refer to Will as his boyfriend in front of someone else for once.

“I would never. I simply want to get to know him better. If the Apollo sprout is important to you, he should be important to me, too,” Hades stated.

“He can’t eat food from the Underworld, y’know,” Nico added.

Hades glared at him, “Do you take me for a fool, Nico? I am well aware of that.”

“Of course, sorry,” Nico apologised, rolling his eyes, “I’ll have to discuss it with him. He- er- might be a little apprehensive about nipping down to the Underworld just for dinner.”

Hades nodded in understanding and if Nico didn’t know better, he would have said Hades almost looked hurt by his comment.

“I hear you’re going to visit his mortal mother,” he finally added after a moment of silence. Nico groaned again.

“Do you listen in to all of our conversations?” he asked, wondering exactly what his father had overheard.

“No. Just that one. I was planning to pay you a visit but noticed you were preoccupied,” he said. Nico flushed and tried not to think about what Hades had overheard or accidentally observed.

“I don’t know if I’m going to visit her or not, though,” Nico explained, “I’m… nervous.”

“Naturally,” Hades nodded, “my own relationship with Demeter has not been ideal over the years since I married Persephone.”

Nico didn’t point out that there may well be a reason for that. He also didn’t point out that Hades was definitely not helping his nerves calm down.

“Right,” Nico stated, “any helpful advice or were you just here to interrogate me?”

“I just wanted to see that you were happy,” Hades said, “I know it isn’t easy being my son. You deserve a good life.”

Nico had had this sort of conversation with his father before. Last time, he’d thought to himself that there was no way he’d ever be truly happy. Now he felt as though his old self really had been wrong. Life felt pretty great for Nico right now.

“Thanks,” Nico said, allowing a genuine smile to cross his face, “you don’t need to worry. Will does make me pretty happy.”

It felt weird to say so to his dad but it was the truth.

“I can tell,” Hades smiled in response, “I think the Harpies are coming. I should probably let you get back to your cabin.”

Nico nodded and got to his feet again. Hades had already turned around and was walking away back into the darkness.

“Dad,” Nico blurted out on impulse, before his father walked away. Hades turned around in shock. It was the first time Nico had referred to him as anything other than ‘father’ or ‘Hades’. “Thank you for checking up on me,” Nico finished.

Hades looked at him and gave a warm smile, something that looked so foreign on his usually cold and stern face.

With that, Hades vanished into the darkness and Nico was left alone again to clamber back up to his cabin before the cleaning Harpies swooped in to eat him for their dinner.

He’d made his mind up about what he was going to do- he was going to visit Will’s mom. Family was important, after all.

It was the last day of summer before Nico knew it and there was a very melancholic feel around Camp. Whilst some campers never went to school, instead staying on at Camp year-round like Nico planned on doing, there were an awful lot of people leaving for the year, some of them for good.

Percy and Annabeth were the first to say goodbye to Nico.

“We’re going to go to college in New Rome,” Annabeth explained to Nico when they caught him wandering past the big house, “but Percy needs to pass his SATs first.”

“It’s going to be a painful year of studying,” Percy added with a grin. Nico huffed a laugh. He couldn’t remember what going to school was like but from what he’d heard, studying was not a fun activity.

“Yeah, I don’t envy you,” Nico said. Percy shrugged.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back to visit soon. Probably sooner than I want knowing how things tend to go at this place. I don’t doubt that gods will have some new problem that needs fixing soon,” he added.

“Don’t you miss the days when you were told not to go on a quest and snuck your way onto it anyway?” Annabeth asked with a nostalgic sigh.

“I would gladly go back and smack my younger self. What was I thinking?” Percy laughed. Nico could sympathise with that.

“At least you didn’t go crazy and start raising dead spirits,” Nico pointed out. Percy laughed harder.

“True, true,” he said and before the three of them knew it, they were laughing about all the ridiculous trouble and near death experiences they’d had over the years.

Nico had never considered using humour as a coping mechanism considering laughing was something he rarely found himself doing, but as he found himself recounting tales with Percy and Annabeth, he realised the memories didn’t hold quite as much sting as they usually did. Nico absent-mindedly wondered if that had been partly Will’s influence on him.

“Remember the time I gatecrashed my own funeral?” Percy asked Annabeth. She burst into laughter again.

“I was about to go saying all this nice stuff about him and then he just wanders over like it was no big deal,” Annabeth said.

“Oh, Nico, what about that time you came over to my house on my birthday to tell me to take a swim in the Styx but got distracted by cake,” Percy reminded him.

“What was I thinking?” Nico asked with a laugh, “at least the cake was good.”

“Sally’s blue food is the best,” Annabeth agreed as Percy wrapped an arm around both her and Nico, squeezing them into a group hug. Nico reluctantly complied. He didn’t mind it anywhere near as much as he pretended to.

“I’m gonna miss you a lot, Nico. You’d better visit us in New Rome, too,” Percy said, “don’t pretend you don’t know me this time!”

Nico smiled sheepishly, “Yeah, sorry about that.”

“Hopefully this time you won’t be losing your memory,” Annabeth scolded as she gently smacked him on the arm.

“I never forgot you, Wise Girl,” Percy said fondly and Nico averted his eyes, already knowing what was about to happen. He scanned the inside of the Big House as he looked away, peering into the infirmary to see if he could spot Will. Will hadn’t said goodbye yet so Nico hoped he didn’t plan on leaving without doing so.

Percy and Annabeth didn’t kiss for long due to Nico’s presence which he was grateful for. He was also glad to notice that he didn’t feel any twinge of jealousy towards Annabeth at all anymore. Percy was just a normal guy to him now. A friend, even.

“I really am sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused you over the years,” Nico apologised. Percy shrugged.

“Don’t sweat it. I’ve caused you trouble, too. Besides, it’s what friends are for,” he grinned, using his knuckle to mess up Nico’s hair as Nico attempted to bat his hand away. Annabeth laughed.

“Look after everyone at Camp for us, Nico,” Annabeth smiled, “I trust you to make sure everything stays orderly.”

“As orderly as Camp Halfblood can get,” Nico pointed out as an appropriately timed fight broke out behind them on the volleyball court between an Ares and an Aphrodite kid.

“Don’t go breaking Will’s heart,” Percy added with a wink. Nico rolled his eyes and flushed red.

“Shut up,” he complained, “I will miss you guys, though. Camp will feel strange without you here.”

Percy and Annabeth smiled so widely at Nico’s admission that he almost regretted it. He regretted it even more when the two engulfed him in another huge hug.

“Goodbye till whenever we next see you, then,” Percy said. Nico nodded.

“Enjoy college,” he greeted. Annabeth smiled.

“Oh, he’s going to love it,” she smirked a little evilly. Nico chuckled and gave them one last wave as the two made their way over to the top of Halfblood Hill where they would undoubtedly be swamped with even more Campers wanting to say goodbye.

Camp really was going to be weird without Percy and Annabeth there. Nico had never really stayed without them there since the time he sent Percy off on the quest his sister died on. All of that felt like aeons ago to him, now.

“It doesn’t seem real, does it?” a familiar voice came from behind Nico. Will had snuck up on him and wrapped his arms around Nico’s waist which he’d usually complain about in such open view of all the camp but it was Will’s last day before he went home for a while and his arms were warm. It wasn’t because Nico actually liked when Will held him like this or anything.

“Percy and Annabeth have just always… been around,” Nico agreed, “I guess I can visit them but it just feels like they’re going away.”

“Jason and Piper are going to New Rome for the year, too, aren’t they?” Will asked. Nico nodded, hoping Will could feel the movement of his head against his chest.

“And you’re gonna be gone. Camp’s going to feel pretty lonely,” Nico pointed out. Will released his arms around Nico and grabbed his shoulders instead, turning him around to face him. His face didn’t look mad but Nico could sense a certain anger behind his eyes.

“That doesn’t give you an excuse to shadow travel off anywhere you like,” Will said, “you’d better still be here when I return each holiday.”

Nico rolled his eyes, “I know, I’ll stay here, I promise. I might go and visit Hazel once or twice but other than that-“

“Good,” Will interrupted him with a sigh of relief, “I think you have some visitors that want to talk to you, though.”

Nico turned around to see where Will was looking. Piper and Jason were stood at the other side of the Big House, observing the scene at a distance. Nico could already tell the two had been spying on them and sent a premature glare in their direction.

“Go on, I’ll wait here,” Will promised with a smirk. Nico nodded at him and made his way over to them.

“So,” Jason started, “this is it for a year.”

“Don’t say that,” Piper accused, “you can still come and visit us. Reyna, Hazel and Frank would want you to visit too.”

“I know,” Nico agreed, “I will do. I hope you both have a good year.”

“I’ll miss you, Nico. Stay safe at camp. We’re only an Iris message away,” Jason reminded him. Nico nodded and felt the beginnings of tears prickling his eyes. He quickly blinked them away but Piper was doing nothing to hide her tears.

“Aww, Neeks,” she sobbed and then threw her arms around him. Nico almost fell back from the impact but slowly embraced Piper back if slightly awkwardly.

“Don’t call me that,” Nico complained but there was no annoyance in his tone. Jason sniffed loudly and Nico glanced over Piper’s shoulder to notice that Jason too was getting teary-eyed. Nico lifted one of his arms and Jason took the invitation, enveloping Nico in a hug too.

As both Piper and Jason were taller than him, he found it difficult to breathe pretty quickly and had to stretch his neck to free his mouth.

“Guys, you’re kind of crushing me,” he spluttered. Jason and Piper released him immediately with apologies rolling off their tongues.

“We will really miss you,” Piper said.

“Yeah,” Jason added, “you’ve changed a lot in just the short space of time we’ve known you. I’m really glad.”

“Well, I think you know who to blame for that,” Nico smirked, throwing a look over his shoulder at where Will, as promised, was still standing.

“Take good care of him,” Piper said with a wink, “have you made up your mind yet?”

Nico took a deep breath in and nodded.

“I know what I need to do,” he said, “and Jason, Will may have helped me but you were the catalyst that set the reaction off. You accepted me when I felt like no one could and I- just- thank you,” Nico managed to stammer out.

Jason looked like he was going to cry again and before Nico knew it, he had been enveloped in yet another hug. Feeling left out, Piper joined in again, squeezing the two boys tightly.

“You really need to stop trying to kill me,” Nico gasped for breath, “There’s still plenty of monsters left to do that.”

Piper and Jason laughed as they relented their tight grip.

“Don’t die whilst we’re gone,” Piper instructed. Nico gave her a wry smile.

“I’ll try not to. Make sure Jason doesn’t get himself killed, too,” Nico said.

“I can look after myself!” Jason complained. Piper laughed and Nico gave a snort.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about,” he said dryly. Jason rolled his eyes and pouted before taking Piper’s hand.

“We’d better go and say our goodbyes to Percy and Annabeth before we take off,” Jason said, “we’ll see you soon, Nico.”

Nico lifted a hand in a half-hearted wave.

“Yeah, I’ll see you.”

And with that, he departed and made his way back up the hill to Will. This was his next goodbye and he knew this one would be the hardest even if he’d only be spending a short time away. Luckily, he had until that evening. Whilst most campers left in the afternoon, Will’s mom worked a day shift at the hospital so could only pick him up later on in the day.

“You okay?” Will asked with a concerned look as Nico approached. Nico wiped away any stray tears that may have been remaining at the corner of his eyes.

“Yeah,” he lied, “just going to miss everyone.”

“Aw, you’re such a softy,” Will teased, hugging Nico from the side, “help me clear up in the infirmary before I leave? It needs to pass inspection.”

“You’re the one inspecting it, you nerd,” Nico complained with an eye roll. His complaints ended when Will pecked his cheek and grabbed his hand, pulling Nico inside the Big House.

As soon as they stepped inside, Will switched straight over into Doctor mode, something Nico was pretty used to by then.

“I need all the thermometers back in the tub on the second shelf up and bring me some latex gloves whilst you’re there- someone’s left medical waste on the table,” Will instructed. Nico nodded and turned around to go to the back before adding,

“Is that a shelf I can actually reach this time?” recalling an incident only a week or so ago.

Will raised his eyebrow in response as he turned around with stethoscopes in his hand.

“I doubt you’d complain much if it wasn’t,” he said pointedly. Nico blushed and muttered a quiet ‘Shut up’ before marching into the back.

Nico was pretty sure Will hadn’t been the last person in here because the boxes were a mess. Will was such a perfectionist when it came to organising the infirmary that Nico knew he’d probably need medical attention himself if he came in and saw the state it had been left in.

With a sigh, Nico shoved the thermometers in the box on the second shelf and started work sorting through the other boxes, attempting to return everything to their correct place.

Nico hadn’t remembered about bringing Will the gloves until a pair of hands tickled his waist and caused him to make an embarrassingly high pitched squeal, dropping the packs of gauze he was holding.

“Sorry,” Will chuckled quietly in Nico’s ear, sending a shiver down Nico’s spine, “what’s taking so long?”

Nico picked up the gauze and stood on his tiptoes to put it back in the box before turning around to face Will.

The son of Apollo was stood closer than Nico had realised and his hands were still hovering over Nico’s waist, ready to pull him even closer. Nico’s heart caught in his throat as he felt his breath catch. Will still had an uncanny knack of taking his breath away. It was very infuriating.

“It- mess- decided to sort it,” Nico said intelligently. If he’d been hoping to disguise from Will how much his sudden presence and closeness had affected him, he was doing a pretty lousy job.

“What?” Will asked, having not understood Nico, not surprisingly. Nico took a breath in and tried to remember how to compose comprehensible sentences as he looked up at Will’s blue eyes.

“Someone messed everything up. I was trying to sort it out again because I know you don’t like it disorganised,” Nico finally managed to say without sounding completely stupid.

Will looked down at Nico with a soft smile on his face. Nico was glad that it seemed he’d actually done the right thing.

“Thank you,” Will said quietly, leaning down so that his nose bumped Nico’s gently. Nico’s breath was taken away once again as Will’s hands tightened around his waist. He wondered if there was such thing as dying from spending too long too close to your boyfriend. Nico at least hoped his father would take pity and resurrect him if that did happen.

After what felt like way too long, Will finally tilted his head and captured Nico’s lips. Letting out a sigh, Nico reached up, wound a hand in Will’s hair and pulled the blond against him hungrily. Will was far too much of a tease and Nico wasn’t going to let him get away with it.

Will didn’t seem to be complaining as Nico kissed him back harder, though, instead letting his hands move from Nico’s waist to his back, one of them slipping underneath Nico’s black t-shirt and tracing the bare skin on his spine. Nico shivered at the touch, despite Will’s hands being as warm as always. Will was permanently warm. Nico suspected it was because he was Apollo’s son but he didn’t really care- he only cared about whether those hands were touching him.

Nico pulled back to take a breath for a second but Will had other ideas, chasing Nico’s mouth with his own and pressing their bodies together again. Nico felt his back touch the shelves behind him and he removed his hands from Will’s hair to place them on the shelves and push the two of them off. He hadn’t just spent all that time organising them for Will to ruin it, no matter what his tongue was doing as it slid into Nico’s mouth and elicited a gasp from him.

“Don’t ruin my tidying,” Nico murmured against Will’s lips.

“Nico, shut up and let me kiss you, I don’t care about the tidying,” Will muttered in response, not giving Nico a chance to respond further as he kissed Nico again, the hot press of his lips making Nico finally give in and decide that the shelves really didn’t matter all that much.

He allowed Will to push him back against them this time as the taller boy’s tongue returned to his mouth. Whilst Nico did like to be the one leading the kiss, drawing small noises out of Will and leaving him a blushing mess, he definitely was not about to complain if Will wanted to push him up against a wall and kiss him senseless.

“Nico,” Will moaned lightly, the sound of his name on Will’s lips causing blood to rush straight to Nico’s cheeks and possibly other places he was trying hard to ignore. Nico just pulled Will’s lips back to his.

The sudden sound of a horn caused Nico and Will to jump apart in shock, Nico’s head hitting against the shelf above him and Will’s nose bumping into his a little harder than anticipated.

“Ow,” Nico said, not entirely sure his mouth was capable of forming any more than a sound at that moment anyway.

“I guess it’s time for dinner,” Will said breathlessly, “I can’t believe I didn’t manage to clean the infirmary.”

Nico rolled his eyes at Will’s pout.

“Don’t blame me, I was trying to help. Besides, you’re the inspector so it doesn’t matter,” he shrugged. Will scoffed.

“It’s basic patient hygiene, di Angelo,” he said, sounding scandalised, “and don’t feign innocence, you were being too distracting.”

“I was literally just tidying a cupboard,” Nico pointed out.

“Exactly,” Will teased, draping an arm over Nico’s shoulder as they made their way out of the Big House and to the mess hall, “distracting.”

Nico blushed and rolled his eyes.

“Catch me after dinner- I don’t want to leave without saying goodbye,” Will ordered. Nico nodded in agreement.

“Me neither,” he said. Will gave his shoulder one last squeeze before releasing Nico and going over to the Apollo cabin, now consisting of only Kayla, Austin and Will.

Nico sat himself down at the Big Three table that was feeling even more vacant. Percy and Jason had both left, leaving Nico alone. He hated sitting alone to eat. He never would have admitted it to Percy and Jason but it did really help having them there when they’d first suggested the idea.

When Nico sat alone to eat, it brought back memories. Memories of buying Happy Meals in desperate attempts to speak to his sister. Memories of sitting trapped in a jar, surviving only off pomegranate seeds and thinking that no one was coming to save him- he would die alone.

They weren’t exactly memories Nico wanted to dwell on, especially now that his life was looking up for once, but the scars ran deep and no amount of happiness would ever truly dispel the nightmares and feelings of hopelessness that occasionally threatened to overcome Nico.

Absent-mindedly, Nico wondered if it would be at all possible for him to convince Chiron that he needed to sit with other people to stop his powers from playing up. Maybe Chiron would let him sit with Will if the son of Apollo played his ‘I’m a doctor’ card.

For a second, Nico was tempted to raise skeletons right there and then but thought better of it. Will would be leaving Camp in about an hour, anyway.

Distracted from his own memory with thoughts of Will, Nico happily bit into his pepperoni pizza.

Despite Will’s promise that he would say goodbye to Nico before he left, Nico spotted the son of Apollo leaving his cabin with a packed bag and heading in the direction of Halfblood Hill- not in the direction of the Hades cabin.

Luckily, Nico had been paying attention so muttering to himself in aggravation, Nico shrugged on his aviator jacket to guard against the cool evening breeze and stormed out of his cabin, not caring that the door slammed shut behind him.

Due to Will’s naturally larger strides (curse his long legs), Nico had to jog to catch up and finally reached him just as he arrived at the top of the hill.

“Going somewhere?” Nico asked pointedly. Will jumped at the sound of his voice.

“Ah, Nico!” he gasped, “uh, sorry, I was going to come and say goodbye but, well-“ Will broke off with a shrug and Nico raised an eyebrow at him. With a glance down the hill, he spotted a woman with curly brown hair, blue eyes as clear as Will’s. Her face was smattered with freckles and she wore a smile Nico would recognise anywhere. She was Naomi Solace- unmistakably Will’s mother.

“Oh,” Nico muttered, drawing his attention back to Will. He’d felt a hint of panic rise up inside him at the sight of Naomi accompanied with the disappointment that Will hadn’t intended to say goodbye to him. Nico was going to be spending a weekend with just her and Will way sooner than he was prepared for.

A thought suddenly hit Nico as to why Will hadn’t been going to say goodbye and it was completely and utterly Nico’s fault.

“Oh!” Nico repeated in realisation as he grabbed Will’s arms, “Will, I forgot to tell you- I made up my mind. I want to visit you at the weekend. I mean, if the offer still stands.”

Will’s eyes lit up immediately.

“Why didn’t you just say so, you idiot?” he asked and before Nico could even respond, Will dropped his bags and picked Nico up, spinning him round. Nico had to try hard not to shriek in shock as he grabbed Will’s shoulders to steady himself.

Still laughing, Will placed him back on the ground and hugged him.

“Of course the offer still stands,” Will promised, “do you want to meet my mom now? She’s heard a lot about you through Iris messages.”

Nico didn’t even think before he answered.

“Yeah, sure!” completely forgetting to panic. Will grinned and grabbed Nico’s hand, picking up his bags again and pulling Nico down the hill with him. They were through the magical Mist barrier before Nico knew it and he was faced with the most daunting task of his entire life. Talking to Will’s mother.

“Will!” Naomi Solace squealed as soon as the two demigods stumbled past the magical barrier. Nico didn’t even complain when Will released his hand so he could engulf his mother in a huge hug.

He was easily taller than her, resting his head on top of her’s as he hugged her. Nico guessed she was about the same height as he was.

“I’ve missed you so much,” she said, “you haven’t been overworking yourself, I hope. If you have a single blister on your hand from over-healing then I swear-“

Whatever Naomi Solace had intended to say next was forgotten as she pulled her son in for another hug. Nico couldn’t help but smile slightly as he observed the scene, despite the panic still rising inside him. At least Will would be in good hands away from camp; Nico doubted he needed to worry too much about Will overexerting himself.

Still, if there was a monster-

Nico shook the thought out of his head quickly. Will had always been fine in previous years. He was going to be fine now. His scent wasn’t as strong as Nico, Percy or Jason’s anyway- he wasn’t a son of the Big Three.

“Mom,” Will whined in complaint, pushing her away, “I’m fine, honestly.”

Despite his complaints, Nico knew how much Will had actually missed his mother. He never shut up about it.

Just then, Naomi happened to look up over Will’s shoulder and her eyes connected with Nico’s. He felt his heart rate immediately pick up in fear. She was going to hate him already.

“Will, I think there’s someone you might be forgetting to introduce me to,” Naomi said, raising an eyebrow at her son expectantly in a way Will so often did to Nico whenever he forgot to look after a wound or help out in the hospital. Nico was already starting to realise exactly why Apollo had been so taken with her. She had a lot of similarities to her son.

“Oh!” Will seemed to realise as his eyes shone. He grinned and walked over to Nico again, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards his mother. Nico allowed himself to be pulled and stood there in shock. “Mom, this is Nico.”

“So you’re the guy Will won’t shut up about when he Iris messages me,” Naomi Solace said with a sly smile. Nico felt his cheeks heat up. He was supposed to say something now.

“Um,” Nico started, “it’s nice to meet you. Will talks about you a lot, too.”

“Oh, does he?” Naomi Solace asked, turning to Will.

“Pfft, as if,” Will pretended but his mom just tackled him in another hug.

“You big softie,” she teased, “you do love your old mom after all.”

“Mom, stop, you’re embarrassing me in front of Nico,” Will complained, attempting to flatten his hair again when his mom released him. Nico fought the urge to run his fingers through it. Will’s mother was right there.

“It really is lovely to meet you, though, Nico. I’m really glad Will’s found someone as good to him as you,” Naomi turned to Nico again, still smiling.

“Good to me?” Will huffed. Nico elbowed him.

“Thank you, Miss Solace,” he said, “I do my best to keep him in check.”

“Please, just call me Naomi. Or mom if you want- anything’s fine by me!” Naomi said. Nico thought he would have felt a little bit awkward calling her ‘mom’ but it didn’t seem like she completely hated him so that was a good thing at least. “I don’t know how you manage- he really is a nightmare.”

“Trust me, I know,” Nico smirked, surprised at how easily he was managing to have a conversation. He hadn’t messed up. He could do this.

Will was apparently not as pleased with his achievement.

“Nico! Mom! I didn’t introduce you to each other so you could gang up against me,” he complained.

“You should have expected this, really,” Nico pointed out.

“Honestly, it’s like he doesn’t even know us,” Naomi shook her head in offense.

“Mom!” Will whined.

“Sorry, did you hear something, Nico?” she asked in a sly tone.

“Nothing at all,” Nico agreed with a shake of his head.

“I changed my mind, you’re uninvited this weekend,” Will huffed.

“You agreed to come?” Naomi asked suddenly, turning to Nico excitedly. Nico had never seen anyone look so glad at the news that he was going to be somewhere.

“Oh, um, I-I’d like to if you don’t mind,” Nico stuttered. Naomi grinned.

“Of course I don’t mind! The more the merrier. I’m sure you’ll help me wind up Will, too,” she said.

“I wouldn’t ever pass up the opportunity,” Nico promised. The tenseness of first meeting Naomi Solace was slowly easing away and he felt his shoulders relaxing. He wondered what he’d ever been so worried about. Naomi was lovely and she shone just as brightly as her son. Maybe Will hadn’t received his sunny disposition from his father, after all.

“Right, I’m leaving,” Will huffed, folding his arms stubbornly. Nico nudged him with his hip.

“So I really don’t get a goodbye?” he asked.

“Will, were you really about to leave without even saying goodbye to Nico?” Naomi asked in shock.

“I wasn- no- I just-“ Will stammered.

“Yes,” Nico interjected. Naomi looked at him sternly.

“It’s a good job your boyfriend actually cares about saying goodbye to you, then, isn’t it?” she pointed out. Nico’s cheeks flushed at the words. It felt weird for Will’s own mother to say that. Weird in a not entirely unpleasant way. “Go on, I’ll wait in the car and I promise I won’t look.”

“Mom!” Will protested, “that means you totally will.”

Naomi shrugged her shoulders and took Will’s bag, taking them back to her blue Honda.

“So I’ll see you this weekend,” Nico said after a moment’s silence. Will smiled at him.

“Thank you. I know this isn’t easy for you but you’ve already done such a good job just talking to her. She really likes you,” Will said.

“All I’ve done is insult you,” Nico muttered. Will laughed and put his hand on Nico’s upper arm.

“I know, but you’ve made an effort to find something in common with her and talk about it. You think you’re bad at talking to people but you just did a really good job of it,” he explained. Nico chewed his lower lip as he considered Will’s words. He hadn’t even been thinking about it like that.

“I suppose you’re right,” he conceded, “but I couldn’t have done it if you hadn’t been there.”

“I’ll always be here if you need me,” Will promised in a soft voice, pulling Nico even closer to him.

“Your mom is watching,” Nico reminded Will although he wasn’t really sure he minded, Will’s closeness sending a frenzy of incoherent thoughts scattering around his brain.

“I don’t care,” Will said, his breath dusting over Nico’s lips. Nico didn’t care either as he closed the distance between them, raising himself onto his tiptoes to plant a gentle kiss on Will’s lips.

Will pulled away way sooner than Nico would have liked but it was still enough to leave his head feeling fuzzy and his lips tingling with warmth.

“Goodbye,” Will said.

“Goodbye,” Nico repeated, releasing Will’s top from where he’d grabbed hold of it to kiss him. Will smiled softly as he trailed his hand along Nico’s arm, releasing it, before walking away towards where Naomi Solace was waiting for him in the car. Nico smiled and waved as he watched Will go before turning around and heading back through the magical border and up Halfblood Hill.

He only had to wait until weekend.

[toku-explained]

The Darkest Swordsman

Z: GAFJ have developed D4 from Barabas' horn, a dimension destroying weapon, and have ordered it's installation in King Joe STORAGE Custom, the installation overseen by Yuki Mai. The Maintenance team make clear from the start they are against this, and the main squad are clearly against it as well, and the Director makes clear he is against using D4 as well, but orders have come down, he's not well, and Celebro encounters him. When Kelbim arrives, drawn by the energy at the initial test site, it quickly heads to where the next D4 weapon is, and the Director brings down the orders from on high to use only King Joe STORAGE Custom and make use of D4, even as more Kelbim descend from the sky and hatch. It's pretty obvious what has happened to the Director, but it's not outright shown. In defiance of orders, Hebikura dispatched Haruki in Windom, but even as they take out one another spawns, and Z is forced to come out. As they continue more appear and Yuka detects the Mother Kelbim in space. Z Delta Rise Claw goes to face it, but even as it wins the numbers become to much and Yoko is forced, out of desperation, to use D4. The attack does take out the Kelbim, but the dimensional collapse keeps spreading, only being stopped by Z. Hebikura makes clear he is angry about all of this, and Yuki Mai seems to have ideas about Ultraman's power. But the big this this time is, as every single member of STORAGE, the entire maintenance team lead by Bako, Yuka, Yoko, Haruki and Hebikura defies GAFJ orders, and the entire unit is being dissolved.

Ultra 6 Brothers The Live: I laid actual money to watch this, since it seems to tie into The Absolute Conspiracy. After Nice warms the crowd up, the story introduces us to Baltan Seijin Baruru, a child alone on a world save for his robot friend. Baruru seems to remember his grandfather, but that's it. One day Red King, Hellberus, Astromons and Giestron rampage, and Man, Seven, Zoffy, Hikari and 80 arrive to stop them. Afterwards the brother discuss why the Kaiju are acting out before all but Ultraman leave. He meets Baruru and befriends him before leaving, asking the robot to look out for him, and after it's gone Baruru and the robot plan to plant a flower, when a gang of Valkie Seijin, Magma Seijin and Zarab Seijin arrive, and start beating up Baruru, calling Hellberus back to assist. The Robot, inspired by Ultraman's words, fights back and does a decent job until losing power, but as more Kaiju come the day is saved by the arrival of the Ultra 6 Brothers. Zoffy fights Zarab, Man fights Red King, Seven fights Valkie, Jack takes Giestron, Ace battles Hellberus, Taro deals with Magma. After the brothers win, they save the Robot and leave, Baruru and his companion continue their journey, but in the end Baruru walks away from the robot, which continues the other way with the flower. Absolute Tartarus appears, commenting on a power. After an intermission the plot moves forward, and to an earth in 2020, where Bemstar and Telesdon come down from the sky, and the narrator explains the Devil Splinters, this is followed by Z Alpha Edge's stock footage, the Rise accompanied with a new one for Zero. Zero and Z Alpha Edge face the two Kaiju, then discuss about the Devil Splinters when an effect devices the Kaiju. Zero defeats Bemstar only for Tartarus, who Zero is aware of, to appear and revive Bemstar, and reveal his servant, the adult Baruru, who created the system reviving the Kaiju. Zero and Z are overpowered until Ultraman and Seven arrive and help defeat them. Ultraman recognises Baruru, and Baruru remembers him, Tartarus arrives and explains their plans. Ultraman asks him to stop but he lashes out, and uses the system to revive Zetton and EX Zetton, which overpower the Ultras, before taking them aside and fusing their genes with himself to become a Zetton Baltan Seijin (variants previously appeared in Orb stages, one being a Dark Ring fusion), and join the Zettons in their battle. While the other Zettons take Seven and Zero offstage, Man and Z fight Baruru. Nice comes onstage to guide some audience interaction to power up the heroes here, which brings Seven and Zero back, and the rest of the Ultra 6 Brothers. After a moment where Man and Baruru wordlessly reflect on their past, Nice somehow finds himself faced with Tartarus, who trounces him before the Brothers minus Man pull him away, they then defeat the Zettons. Zero and Z face Tartarus until he decides to leave, but Z pursues. Ultraman and Baruru fight, although really it's just Man trying to remind Baruru of his true self, Baruru wakes up and returns to normal, but Zetton Baltan Seijin still exists on its own, now mindless and Ultraman is injured taking a hit. Zoffy, Ace and Seven take care if it long enough for Baruru to revive Man using his device, and he destroys Zetton Baltan Seijin. Tartarus murders Baruru and calls on Tyrant, which already mostly defeated Jack and Taro, and Man, Zero and Z struggle with, until Nice leads the audience again. Together the Brothers Zero and Z defeat Tyrant. The dying Baruru is shocked by the robots return. Ultraman informs him they're on earth. The robot uses the system to save Baruru, and presents the healthy plant. After sharing some parting words Baruru and his friend leave. The assembled Ultras thank the audience and leave some last words. All in all good, but about as important as those Ultraman Festival Stages or the Final Stages. Also this is pretty clearly pre-Z so I don't know why they didn't just have Z in his initial state.

The Absolute Conspiracy: The highly anticipated event begins. New Generation Heroes was a prequel to Taiga, and featured the first live action appearance of a character previously only seen in a Pachinko machine. Similarly, The Absolute Conspiracy is a prequel to Z and features several characters previously only seen in the Ultraman Festival Stages. There are differences too though. The central villain here is, to my knowledge, wholly original, and while New Generation Heroes was a a single narrative from start to finish, this is a story in 3 "parts", and while New Generation Heroes focused on only the New Generation Heroes, as well as the two most direct mentors to that group, and an Ultra who debuted in the era but is not considered part of the group, here we have quite a diverse group. So we start here in Part 1, starting Ultraman Ribut. In the M78 timeline this would appear to be set sometime in the 1000s of years gap between Mebius and Ultra Galaxy. Cool to see there's a proper OP this time, evidently going to switch up for each part. After our brief appearance by Absolute Tartarus our focus moves to young recruit Ribut, who is working alongside Civilisation Guard Max (original VA), who is one of a number of M78 Ultras who was originally believed to be from his series' universe version of the Land of Light, but since the Zero movies we now know them to be from the main M78 universe, and traveled from there to the timeline of his series. The planet is having it's energy drained by a Maga-Orochi egg, the existence of which is concerning due to the Maga-Orochi being sealed on Orb's earth....by a group of Ultras that included Zero....this might be later in the timeline than I thought. Hellberus might be an indicator Tregear is behind what's going on, he has interfered with several other New Generation Kaiju, but Sran Seijin is the only mastermind we have at the moment. Gudis Cells are infecting Max now, and I presume they want the Maga-Orochi to evolve into something more. We go to Planet Kanon. This is before the event of The Origin Saga, as the Tree of Life is still standing. The present War God, Queen Izana, is also part of the Galaxy Rescue Force, which seems to draw from an old idea from the 70s of a Galactic Federation that Tsuburaya's heroes were all part of, in this instance though the alliance is multiversal. Anyway here we have Sora, making her first appearance outside of stages, she started out as one of the generic Ultras, but now have that armour to stand out. She's accompanying Yullian (new VA) princess of the Land of Light, who is wearing a mantle here for the first time. Leucocyte attacks, which may further point to Tregear, and 80 (original actor) appears to help, until Leucocyte flees. The 80 sequence heavily reminds me of the Ace and Leo Brothers sequences in Ultra Fight Victory, giving the classic Ultra a strong showing before the newer hero takes centre stage. Ribut reports what happened to Zoffy, Taro and Hikari (all have their longstanding VAs) when the other 3 arrive with their own report, giving them a lot to deal with, and establishes the history of Ribut and Sora. They have to create an antibody to Gudis' cells in 3 days or Max is lost, and Ribut is sent to train on K76, where he meets for some intense training Great (New VA) and Powered (Kai's actor Kane Kosugi in English, Kai's dub VA in Japanese).

Saber: Tassel on the phone to somebody, interesting. I've gotten over my issue with Touma's memory from last time, knowing he was friends with Kento and finding Kento was in the memories that seemed to be dreams are different things. It's only natural that Kento is confused, and he decides getting Kamijo to tell him everything is the only option. Apparently the 6 swordsmen being present is reason for Legeiel to step up Megiddo plans using Goblins. Kento and Rintaro argue before the activity starts, Sophia gives Mei a key and heads out, leaving Northern Base to her. Kenzan goes to face one Megiddo, while Buster's mission to face another is interrupted by Desast. Rintaro and Kento argue about duty to Sword of Logos when Kento is called by Reika to where Sophia is confronting Caliber. Saber arrives at another Goblin. Sophia is trying to get explanations from Kamijo when Kento and Rintaro appears. Kento asks if the worst possible scenario is true before confronting Kamijo, Espada and Kamijo clash, Slash joins Saber and lends Bremen no Rock Band, when Zooous arrives to face Slash. Caliber claims he cut down Hayato for being a traitor, while calling himself a seeker of truth, Espada uses Golden Alangina and pushes Blades out the way. Kento gets a good hit in, and Caliber decides to use Jaou Dragon, becoming Caliber Jaou Dragon. While they fight Sophia suddenly vanishes. Mei uses the key an unlocks the screen, and Saber uses Dragon Bremen to defeat his Goblin as Kenzan does the same. Unfortunately, this is exactly what Legeiel, Zooous and Desast wanted, opening gates of Fire and Wind. Caliber overpowers Espada on the end, and tries to make the killing blow, but Blades takes it, and Rintaro is in critical condition. I think Kento's probably going to act less rashly now. Tassel has a guest, and I have an idea who. I might be wrong.

Kenshin Retsuden: This time we have an episode of Kenzan, listed as being "another side" of episode 9. Ogami and Ren are both looking for Caliber when Ogami realises Sophia is about to do something reckless. Desast, who is looking for Caliber to reclaim his book, confronts Ren and mocks him on the nature of ultimate power, Ren showing some serious might makes right thoughts, before leaving, thinking something about him afterwards about Ren's nature. Ogami saves Sophia as in the episode, but afterwards Sophia comments that Kento will be hurt regardless of who Caliber is, opening Ogami's eyes to the possibility of someone else behind the mask.

Kiramager: Whatever it is the guy wants to say to Sayo, he's clearly nervous. Sayo has gone into the dinner with certain expectations, but isn't sure how she feels quite yet. The team tries to let her keep the evening for her date. While the team is busy, she really wants to hear it at least. Garza's plan is to unleash multiple Jamenju, which Riddle Kamen is making plenty of energy for. As for Sayo, it's not like she doesn't like the dude, but she won't know until he says it, but I like how everyone is just desperate to know more. Sayo solves the riddle but doesn't tell the others what it is. Garza is bending Hakobu to his will. While it appears what Kusaka had in mind was something different, Sayo gets straight in to helping him. I am a little disappointed that we're having a marriage would mean quitting being a ranger plot for a female in fucking 2020, but that doesn't matter because turns out, surprise, Kusaka was working with Yodonna. Garza is off to eliminate Oradin. Sayo still protects him, but any chance of anything more is done for, but she still entrusts him with warning CARAT. To be fair about the marriage plot, Sayo herself had every intention of making it work, and there is the whole surgeon thing giving it more justification here than in other plots. I like how we have this goofy scene of Juru making Riddle Jamen answer a riddle of his own interspersed with the fairly serious drama of the Sayo plot. Garza has arrived in Atamald, the plant is sprouting, and 3 Jamenju arrive.

[yukin0umi]

Polaris: Kakome, Kakome

Inspired by “Kakome, Kakome” sung by Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka

(Psst. Hey @ask-linkuei-grandmaster, this is also inspired and based off of the RPing I have been doing with you and Hanzo. Just though to let you know.)

____________________^_^___________________

“I’m starting to think this mission wasn’t such a good idea…” Yuki muttered, her voice muffled by her bandanna over her mouth. She walked through the moldy hallway of an abandoned building, being careful with every step. Every five minutes, Yuki heard children laughing, crying, or screaming. Something wasn’t right.

After losing a bet, Yuki agreed to ask Kuai Liang to give her the scariest mission he could find. When he asked why, all she said was that she lost a bet with Frost. Kuai Liang looked wary but before he gave he the mission, he asked if she was absolutely sure about taking it. The female cryomancer said yes.

It was a recon mission that took place in an abandoned building in Shimane Prefecture in Hiroshima, Japan, only to observe and report back to the Lin Kuei with probably all her limbs still together. Reading the report, it said that there was abandoned children that were being experimented on by strange scientists. That alone made it creepy. Nobody said that the building would look like it hadn’t been inhabited in about half a century or so.

Yuki was snapped out of her thoughts when she saw one of the children pulling her long braided hair. The child look like she was ten years old with dirty black hair, and a dark kimono on, along with no shoes on and dark blue eyes. She looked like she was dead.

“What are you doing?” The child asked, making Yuki hesitate. “All the kids should be in the playroom right now.”

“Uh…” Yuki didn’t know what to say or do. Knock her out or actually follow her to see where she goes. “I’m not a kid…” ‘Smart, Yuki. Real smart.’ The child didn’t answer back but did pull Yuki’s braid as if the Lin Kuei was on a leash towards the end hallway to the last door. “Ow! Yamete! Stop pulling my hair!”

The little girl stopped when she reached a door with the light on, opening it to reveal children, all covered up in bandages, one was missing an arm, and all of them looked at Yuki. “We have a new friend. She wants to play with us.”

Yuki’s eyes shrunk at that. “Wait a second, what?” Her eyes wandered around, and then she saw the reason why Grandmaster Liang was worried and hesitant to give her the mission. She saw two people, both male and covered in bandages, with the Lin Kuei symbol. They both looked at her as if she was a tasty piece of meat, and just kept on staring as they both stood up and walked towards her. “Uh, min’na?” Yuki’s whispered words didn’t reach them as they grabbed her arms and threw the female cryomancer to the floor. One of the children brought one of the scientists and he studied her, taking her chin in his hand. He smiled and Yuki could sense the malicious intent behind it.

“I want you to come with me. We’re going to play a little game called ‘Kagome, Kagome.’ I’m sure you’ve heard of it.” His name tag said Akihiko and he stuck a syringe in Yuki’s arm, knocking her out. Before she closed her eyes, the last thing Yuki heard was, “Another Lin Kuei? We’re getting quite popular with them. She’s probably an asset who’s too emotional. The girl will die.”

_______________________^_^________________

The next time Yuki woke up, she was in the middle of a circle of scientists who were hiding something behind their backs. All of her weapons and Lin Kuei clothing were gone and replaced with simple hospital clothes. Even her white and blue tipped hair was taken out of its braid and was flowing down her back. “What the hell? What’s going on?” As she voiced her concerns, one of the scientists came to her and tied a blindfold around her head, covering her eyes. ‘Are they trying to make me feel like Kenshi? ‘Cause it’s not working.’

“We’re playing Kagome, Kagome, Yuki Hanabi, one of the female cryomancers of the Lin Kuei.”

That got Yuki’s attention. “How do you know my name?”

“We have two of your comrades. They know your name, where you’re from, your alias, and your relationship with Sub-Zero.”

“Grandmaster Liang has nothing to do with this!”

“Sub-Zero has to do with everything. Including you, the Lin Kuei, and his fire breathing fiancé. Once you’re out of the way, I’ll go for Scorpion, then your teacher. Not like he’ll ever notice you’re gone.”

That last sentence sunk in. What? “...This is not Kagome, Kagome...isn’t it? You’re going to kill me for your personal gain, then Master Hasashi is next on your hit list.” Yuki summarizes.

The scientist who sounded like Akihiko chuckled. “Smart girl. Too bad that beautiful brain of yours will be ours soon. And in the literal sense.”

“I’ll kill you myself before I’ll let that happen.”

“How can you do that with all your weapons gone and your powers temporarily neutralized? By the time it wears off, your pretty little head will be ours.” Akihiko turned to his coworkers and held his machete tightly. “Now then, let’s begin. Let’s play Kagome, Kagome.”

____________________^_^___________________

Back at the Lin Kuei temple, Kuai Liang was pacing back and forth in his study. Yuki has been gone for more than about two days and was debating on whether to contact the Special Forces that three of his students went missing on a mission. He already contacted Hanzo Hasashi about the situation and was already on his way to the Lin Kuei temple. He looked at Yuki’s sketchbook and the drawing she did of the temple on her first days at the temple. What if she never comes back? What if she’s dead already?

Kuai’s thoughts were interrupted when he heard knocking at the door. When he opened the door, he saw Hanzo and the pyromancer hugged Kuai Liang and pressed his lips to the cryomancer’s. When he let go, he cleared his throat. “Kuai, I heard what happened. How long has Hanabi been away from the compound?”

The Lin Kuei sighed as he looked at the map once more. “She’s been gone for nearly 48 hours minus the time difference. The other two have been gone for about a week. I’m worried. This mission should’ve taken about five hours at most, including the trip back. Yuki’s quiet and precise, but even she should be back by now.”

Hanzo frowned at his fiancé’s worry. Yuki and her comrades should be back, but they’re not. Yuki’s radio was still on, but it wasn’t her voice that was permeating through it. The voices were singing…”Kagome, Kagome?” Hanzo whispered in confusion.

“What?” Kuai Liang asked.

“Kagome, Kagome is an old children’s playground game. Basically a group of children form a circle and chant a song around the player playing the oni in the middle. By the end, the oni blindfolded has to name off the person behind them. I’m guessing in this version, Yuki’s the oni blindfolded in the middle.” Hanzo explained, making Kuai’s eyebrow raised in wonder. “Since this mission is in a very historical building with a very horrifying background. Not even I dare to go in.”

“Really?”

“Yes, there are children there, younger than all three of the Lin Kuei warriors. However, they were all born around seventy years ago.”

The Lin Kuei’s eyes shrunk. “They shouldn’t still be children. They should be full grown adults.”

“Exactly. This is why everyone in all of Japan has a brain and avoid that place. Speaking of brains… Yuki’s a dead woman unless we can stop this. And get the Special Forces involved.”

Kuai Liang nodded in agreement. “Right, I’ll let General Blade know of our situation.” Once Hanzo looked at the map, trying to pin out where the abandoned building was, the cryomancer sighed. “Please be okay, Yuki. I’m coming.”

____________________^_^___________________

What was one hour felt like it was going slow at a snail’s pace as Yuki felt the scientists walk in a circle around her, chanting the song until she flinched. Akihiko was smiling maliciously as he saw the small cryomancer on the door blindfolded and helpless.

“How does it feel? To know that you’re going to die very soon?” The head scientist asked

“How’s it feel that my friends will be coming soon? When Sensei Liang gets angry, even I wouldn’t be in the same room as him.” Yuki asked back, using the same threatening tone.

Akihiko took her chin and pulled her towards him, trying to intimidate the female cryomancer. “You’re so pretty and cute. I can’t wait to chop that cute head with pretty hair off.”

Yuki felt her ears twitch, hearing something...or someone. It sounds like footsteps towards the lab. Akihiko kept sweet-talking her, attempting to make her shake, but it was all for naught. The air, due to lack of ice powers, actually felt colder than before. The chill felt…familiar. ‘Sensei, hurry up. Please.’ As Yuki was still bound, she was unable to move since not one of the scientists wanted their subject to fight them off.

————————————-^_^—————————

Kuai Liang walked around the halls of the old building with Hanzo next to him, trying to be quiet and cautious. They knew Yuki was around somewhere, along with the two other Lin Kuei. “She’s here. I can feel it, Hanzo.” Kuai whispered, walking up the creaking staircase carefully.

The pyromancer waved his hand around, his flames being a source of light. Until he stopped in front of an old door, hearing chanting and someone talking. “Kagome, Kagome…” He whispered. Hanzo turned to Kuai, feeling confident. “Hanabi’s in here. I know it.”

“Is there another way to get in?”

“No. This is the only one.”

“Alright.” The Lin Kuei placed his hand on the door and focused on freezing the door to get in. Once the whole door froze, Kuai Liang kicked it open to reveal scientists circling someone, all of them having machetes behind their backs.

“Who goes-” The head scientist stopped once he saw the two grandmasters of fire and ice. He held onto Yuki’s neck and held the machete there. “Ah, Sub-Zero and Scorpion. I figured you would come for your precious students. Especially her.”

Kuai Liang’s hands covered themselves in frost with rage. How dare he? Threaten and capture three of his students? Especially one who’s close to being a daughter of some sort to him? “Yuki? Are you alright?” He asked, trying to keep whatever patience he had left.

Yuki choked on her words a bit, due to the grip on her neck. “I’m alright, Sensei. They disabled my cryomancy, took away my weapons and tied me up.” She took a sharp breath, trying to relieve the pressure on her neck. “Also, I’m starting to see how Kagome, Kagome is part of this and I officially hate it now.”

Akihiko presses the sharp weapon to Yuki’s neck, drawing blood out. “Well? Any last words, Hanabi?”

She looked at the scientist with a straight face, looking fearless once more. “I won’t be the one dying tonight. The same can’t be said for you and your associates.”

When Akihiko was about to swing the machete, Hanzo, with his kunai, struck and pulled him. “GET OVER HERE!” Kuai froze the other two scientists and went to Yuki and began to untie her.

“Where are Wang and Luo?” Kuai Liang asked, freezing the rope after failing to untie it.

“In a room full of children. Sensei, they aren’t the same.” Yuki answered, breaking the bonds, then giving Kuai Liang a hug. After being surprised for a few seconds, he returned the hug. “Thank you, Sensei.”

“You’re welcome, Yuki. How long is your cryomancy disabled till?”

“For a few more hours. I still need my stuff.”

Hanzo, who just cut someone’s head off, turned to them. “I will gather Hanabi’s things. You get your students.”

Leading her teacher to the end of the hall, Yuki opened the door and showed him the room full of children, including the two Lin Kuei warriors, Luo and Wang. All the children looked at them and walked towards them. “Wanna play with us?”

“No, I’m good. I’m here for only my two students.” Kuai grabbed Wang and Luo, froze the children unconscious, and walked out. “That was easier than I thought.” He and Yuki walked off with her two comrades in hand, but the female cryomancer began to falter behind. “Yuki, are you alright?”

“I’m okay. I think they gave me something else though and everything is really hot and kind of spinning.”

“Your body isn’t used to being without cryomancy for so long. You could be getting sick.” He felt Yuki’s forehead, her feeling very warm. “More than likely, they gave you something that will slow you down with symptoms of a cold. I promise you can rest once we get back to the helicopter. The Special Forces are here and will help you, Luo and Wang.”

Hanzo came running to them, holding a bag with Yuki’s clothes and weapons inside. “I have her things. We should start going.” Everyone nodded and began to get to the exit.

‘Yuki…’

Yuki perked up at the sound of her name and looked around, everyone was quiet on the way back. She sighed. Maybe the fever was going through her head.

‘Yuki, you should be able to recognize me…

There it was again. Yuki officially deemed herself crazy and hallucinating.

‘It’s me. Yuki-onna.’

Yuki found herself in a dark room with a yokai all in white standing behind bars. It was Yuki-onna, the yokai Yuki claimed to have killed her parents. “What the hell? Why are you here?”

Yuki-Onna chuckled. ‘Why am I here? Stupid Quan Chi after what happened about twelve years ago. He put me in you.’

Yuki’s eyes shrunk. Quan Chi…? It wasn’t Yuki-onna? “I don’t understand. I saw you freeze my parents to their death.”

The yokai scoffed, flipping her jet black hair. ‘Quan Chi disguised himself as me then put me in you, making your already genetic cryomancy even stronger. Then he killed your parents, hoping to get an angry reaction from you. I was too much for such a little girl, causing you to faint. That was what really happened twelve years ago.’

Yuki began to shake. All this time, the yokai she had been blaming, was innocent this whole time. Yuki got on her knees and bowed to Yuki-onna. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! I had been blaming the wrong person this whole time!’ The little cryomancer began to cry, not noticing that the Snow Woman’s hand was petting her hair.

‘My vessel, it’s alright. You were a little girl and never heard of that sorcerer. Now that you and I are one, we will have to find a way to coexist with one another. Like Scorpion with Master Hasashi.’ Yuki-onna soothes, petting Yuki’s snow white hair. Yuki wiped away her tears and stood up. ‘Now then, since Polaris is your alias, I would suggest you call me that.’

“Just like with Scorpion.”

Yuki-onna held Yuki’s hands, feeling the cold through her. ‘Get some rest, my dear. I will take over for now.’

“Please let them know. I don’t want to scare them.”

‘You have my word, Hanabi.’

“...Yuki!” Kuai Liang’s voice snapped Polaris out of her thoughts, making her jump a little. “We’ve been calling your name and you didn’t answer. Please be more attentive next time.”

“So sorry, Sensei. I was in my own thoughts.” Polaris’ voice sounded a bit deeper into an alto range, and although Kuai Liang didn’t notice it, Hanzo did.

Hanzo walked to her and took a look at her face, Yuki’s left eye was in a total pale blue color, as if she was dead, but clearly alive. “Who are you and what have you done with Yuki Hanabi?” He asked with some pieces of a threat in his voice.

“Yuki Hanabi is currently resting up. I have permission to take over her physical body until we arrive at the helicopter.” Polaris answers, making the two grandmasters confused.

“What? Who are you?” Kuai Liang asked.

“My name is Yuki-onna, I am very sure that Yuki has told you about me.” Kuai Liang eyes shrunk. ...How?! “How I came to be inside her is a very long story, but right now, we must avoid the children and remaining scientists until we reach the Special Forces.” Polaris walked forward, past the confused assassins. “I will also be her reservation for Hanabi’s cryomancy, in case if anything like this happens again.”

“Like a back-up power.”

“Exactly, Hasashi.”

Reaching a turn, the group saw the injured Akihiko and his remaining coworkers, all with machetes in their hands. “You tried my hand, Hanabi. Now you will die without playing a fun game.”

“Kagome, Kagome was never fun anyway.” Polaris responds apathetically. Once the scientists ran towards her, Polaris blew on them and froze all of them instantly, leaving Akihiko alone and shaking in his boots. “How does it feel? Knowing that you will die soon?” She took his machete and cut off his arms cleanly. “This is for the innocent children you turned into science experiments.” Polaris then cut both his legs with her spiked ice, making him fall to the ground, staining his lab coat in a puddle of his own blood. “This is for my Lin Kuei comrades.” She then aims her iced paint brush and ice kunai at his neck. “And my sensei.” She stuck the weapons in his head then cut his head off with her blade, pinning it to the wall with a paintbrush before the head hit the ground.

Luo, Wang, Kuai Liang, and Hanzo just stood there in awe, not knowing that Yuki, or Yuki-onna, was even able to do that. They all thought the same thing…

FATALITY

Polaris then fainted, Kuai being quick enough to catch before she hit the ground. He picked her up to rest in his arms and looked at her bloodstained hospital clothing, and hair, wondering even how or why Yuki-onna was now part of his student. Hanzo placing a hand on his shoulder interrupted his thoughts.

“Kuai, we need to go before the children arrive.”

“Right.”

They went through the rest of the orphanage without any other encounters.

__________________^_^_____________________

When Yuki woke up, she was back in her room at the Lin Kuei temple, covered in bandages, in her pajamas, and with an ice pack over her head. She sat up from the covers and held her head, trying to remember what happened before, but coming up blank.

“I see you’re awake.”

Yuki turned to see Kuai Liang, holding an ice pack and a cup of tea. “Yeah, I suppose I am. I don’t remember what happened after I put my head in the clouds.” She accepted the cup of chamomile tea, as he changed the ice pack on her head.

He looked at her, surprised. “You don’t remember? Not one bit?” His knowledge with worldly beings came from Hanzo and his experience with Scorpion, but he remembered everything. Yuki didn’t.

Yuki shook her head, being mindful of her headache blooming. “No. Not one part.” She held her now pounding head, making it harder to think. The Lin Kuei Grandmaster noticed it and helped her lie back down and relax. “What about Wang and Luo? Are they alright?”

“Wang and Luo are fine and are recovering. Right now, you need some rest.” He tucked her in, hoping to have her head back to sleep.

“What about training? I-”

“You will take some days off from training to recover. Right now, head back to sleep. Your fever is being quite pesky.”

“My cryomancy didn’t come back yet?”

“I’m afraid not. The doctor said that it will be a bit longer till your powers come back.” Kuai Liang even per her hair, hoping to calm her anxiety. “Right now, rest.”

Before Yuki fell asleep, she muttered loud enough for Kuai Liang to hear, “Arigato, chichi…” She didn’t say anything after that.

When the Lin Kuei Grandmaster closed the door, he saw Hanzo behind him, smiling. “What?” He asked.

“Do you what she just said to you?” Hanzo asked, the smile not leaving his face. Kuai shook his head, knowing that Yuki speaks only Japanese sometimes. “She said, ‘Thank you, father.’ She called you her father.”

(So sorry for the crappy ending. I didn’t know what to end the story. Happy Halloween, I guess...?)

[purfectmlpblog]

...alright fuq it lemme explain my thoughts about the finale spoilers lol

Don’t worry, I WILL be posting this under a read-more so PLEASE turn away and ignore this now (especially with some “spoiler” tags on if you use ‘em) if you don’t want to be spoiled for the finale until it officially airs. I just can’t contain my thoughts no more after ponderin’ them and who knows when it’ll officially air in English (’cause slow schedules can be a pain to deal with lol) sooooo... yeah you’ve been warned xp 

...Ooooh boi, well admittedly I kinda skimmed through what the whole plot was about behind the last three episodes (I was moreso focused on all the stuff happening for “The Last Problem” so lol), but I’ll try to keep it brief for the most part:

-So... that whole thing about Grogar being the last “big bad” was just a total lie... since apparently it was just Discord masking himself as the guy just to give Twilight one last battle to face? ...Ehhh, I get that he apparently had “good intentions” but this just seems to be pushing it too far even for Discord’s standards tbh... like these are his friends now (including Fluttershy, his best friend) so why would he allow this much risk to be thrown at them for the sake of just teaching them a valuable lesson about overcoming obstacles? ._. Then again, this IS Discord we’re talking about so him pulling some shady stuff like this is to be expected, I guess? Idk...

-As another twist to the trio of bad guys... NONE of them get redeemed at the end (not even Cozy Glow... who again, is nothing more than a whiny child compared to Chrysalis and Tirek :P), as they all pretty much get blasted with the same stone spell that Discord was under for what I can presume to be forever. I mean... had Sombra been placed in Cozy Glow’s position then I guess I’d be a bit more satisfied with this kind of ending for them instead of feeling questionable about it (’cause again, Cozy’s young age ^^;)... but at the same time, for what it is it’s at least a refreshing change of pace from just having them all instantly forgiven and befriended by all the main heroes. Now that would’ve been cringey... >_<

-We got a reaaally big group of cameos from many past ponies/other creatures from the show to aid in the final battle, including Sunset and a few of the MLP movie characters like Tempest, Capper and Skystar! o.o A shame that Captain Celaeno couldn’t have been added along with them but still, pretty cool to see that particular trio regardless along with my girl Sunset ❤️ about time the main show acknowledged her importance to Twilight -.-

-Moving onto the big finale itself, “The Last Problem”, we cut ahead to I presume to be a couple decades or so since the last episode... where Twilight and her friends are all grown up and leading their own lives as Twilight’s pupil (Luster Dawn, was it?) comes to prepare herself for her own first friendship lesson. Surprisingly, unlike past finales it’s not so much a really heavy or action-packed episode but more of a “relaxing breather” kinda filler... yet still pushes the feels the more we get to see the aged-up cast and realize how this truly is the end for our heroes :(

-We’re also given a nice flashback to Twilight’s coronation as Equestria’s new leader, though it didn’t go according to plan it still provided some heartwarming feels to teach that friendships will always remain solid even if some end up moving far away. Awww ;w;.

-As for the “Grown up” designs themselves... I’m kinda torn, tbh lol

On one hand, I do like Rainbow’s, Fluttershy’s, and AJ’s older looks just fine. AJ’s especially gives me the feels looking at it ‘cause of the shawl... really hits in that poor Granny Smith is no longer around by this time :( at least she’ll always keep her memory strong in her heart ❤️

As for Twilight, Rarity, Spike and Pinkie... ehhhh ^^;. Rarity’s sparkly shawl is rather pretty though that big grey steak in her hair kinda clashes too much with the regular purple imo, Pinkie’s beehive look could’ve been fine if they just took out all that random junk in her hair, and while part of me kinda likes the “ethereal princess-y” vibes of Twilight (despite the rather dark implications that she’s gonna outlive her friends now ;-;)... the fact that she still sounds like her old dorky self when speaking kinda kills the effect for me... plus idk if only a couple decades in the future would be enough to make her this tall as an alicorn, I mean even Luna (who’s older than her) is alot shorter so it’s just a little off-putting to me to see her so “Celestia”-sized ^^;. And as for Spike... yeah, I don’t even know what’s going on there, so... let’s just move on, please lol.

So then we get to look over how everyone else in Ponyville’s doing, with so many new species living there now, some old kiddos grew up like the CMC and the Cake twins, Starlight and her friends (plus the Student 6) continuing to run the friendship school together, and apparently some canon couples started to thrive during this time too including Lyra and Bon Bon, Big Mac and Sugar Belle, and... Pinkie and Cheese? o.o 

...Um, wow lol Wasn’t really expecting that considering that most of Cheese and Pinkie’s previous screentime together (which was only in like, two episodes?) wasn’t really that romantic from what I can recall, but guess the writers decided to just throw it in anyway ‘cause it’s a popular ship? lol I mean, not like it’s a bad one or anything but it still feels a bit randomly-placed in a narrative sense imo ^^;

Speaking of their daughter (Lil Cheese, I think?), while I do think she’s cute, part of me is kinda disappointed that they didn’t really get more creative with her design like they’ve done for Flurry Heart and the Cake twins :c. Color-wise she looks okay but... why just make her a recolor of her mom’s filly design? .-. Even putting her hair in some pigtails or something would’ve worked better imo.

-Some more design nitpicks I had were certain weirdly placed hairstyles like Pumpkin Cake’s and Diamond Tiara’s, as well as why Gummy the alligator just looks like he resized into a giant than legitimately grew into an adult lol. Also this might also be nitpicky but why exactly is everyone (minus Twilight) so old-looking with grayed hair and/or eye bags (ex. Rarity and Sugar Belle), when a couple of them have school-aged children at this point? .-. Hell, even most of the Mane 6′s parents didn’t look this old (including Twilight’s, and they’ve got a granddaughter lol), so I’m kinda confused by this type of design choice tbh.

-I don’t really remember if they explicitly stated what happened to the old princesses during this time since they didn’t show up again, nor what the final fates of Shining Armor and Cadence were (save for a brief shot of Flurry Heart having her own stain-glass window in the throne room). Idk, just would’ve been nice to have gotten more explicit about that ‘cause I don’t wanna think of these poor royals being gone now with just Twilight being the leader now ;-; 

-I guess there was also a couple “implied” ships thrown in too like Fluttershy and Discord (though that one might be more “loose” to interpret, depending on how much you like the ship) and apparently AJ and Rainbow Dash seem to be having something “deeper” going on considering they specifically walked in together when all the other Mane 6 walked in individually into the throne room. Hmmm...?

-And lastly after a bit more filler and than a montage song of the Mane 6 harmonizing together one last time, we get to close off the entire episode, season, and series with one final shot of the heroes standing on a sunset-y hillside together, saying goodbye to Twilight’s student who goes off on her own friendship adventures... and then the screen fades to a book closing as a call back to the very first episode of the series over 9 years ago... where the exact same book opened up to start off our beloved show to begin with T-T

....aaaand yeah my feels exploded over again, sorry T-T. Despite the lil nitpicks I had here and there (and how I wish certain plot holes could’ve been handled better in hindsight), this was still a really sweet and thoughtful way to end MLP: FiM with one last batch of fluff like this... the end of a good 9-year run of the show which’ll surely leave a special place in every fan’s hearts, including mine ❤️

Though again, like I mentioned before I still won’t be considering any of this actually “canon” in the main universe I’m setting up, which is all basically an AU at this point since I haven’t really been keeping up with the show as frequently to care much for sticking with the main canon :p. For my fellow content creators, please don’t be afraid to keep working on your own next gens and such btw, even if some of it might be contradicted in this particular finale I’d say anyone is free to make their own interpretations however they want, canon or no canon~ ;p

  Hope y’all understand that well and I hope you guys have a great rest of your day! 😃 

[linerwriter]

A Bang and a Flash

Hello~ This is my first post ever on this site. I’ve recently been very invested in the Linked Universe AU by @jojo56830. If you haven’t seen it, I would highly suggest you check it out. 

I was inspired by the idea of how the Links met because I don’t believe it’s been addressed yet. Then, my mind wandered the rabbit hole of possible situations for when they met Wild, and this was born. If you have any suggestions to make it better, or find an inconsistency, don’t be afraid to tell me. I hope you enjoy!

Word count: 1633. Unbetaed.

It started with a bang and a flash of light.

They don’t know why they were brought together. It could’ve been fate, it could’ve been that darn shadow that seemed to haunt them. What they do know, however, is that they are all quite… similar. Not in the way that they talked, or walked, or even how they moved. No, they were similar because of their souls.

Indeed, this group of eight is made up of heroes, of a specific land. This land is, in fact, called Hyrule, and for reasons unknown (except for one), the land goes through trouble every once in a while. No big deal, just a creature wanting the most ultimate power in the land. Fairy tales, right? Oho, they wished.

Their names were Time, Twilight, Sky, Wind, Warriors, Legend, Hyrule, and Four. These weren’t their actual names, they were nicknames meant to differentiate each other. Of course,they didn’t know each other prior to their meeting. Some of them knew of one another from legends passed down, but they had never met each other. And yet, they recognized each other. It was like they born as the same person, so intense was the feeling of family that they all felt.

And so they traveled. They traveled far and wide, through all the different Hyrules, never knowing what to expect. Eventually, they figured out the pattern: spend a couple months in one time, then jump to the next one. It was always when they were sleeping as well, so they didn’t know what to expect when the world suddenly went topsy-turvy.

It dropped them in the middle of somewhere. It was vast, the grass a fairer green than any of the prior places. It was vaguely familiar to them, almost like they were meeting an old friend they hadn’t seen in a long time. As they twisted and turned, picking apart their new environment, they noticed things. Things that were out of place.

“Hey Twi?” Warriors spoke up quietly, “This look weird to you?”

The man in fur nodded. “Yeah,” he answered, “It’s cloudy.”

Indeed it was.

To regular people, this wouldn’t have bothered them. It was a little dark, enough to darken the sun or disturb their morning. To these heroes, though, dark clouds meant something different. They meant something bad. They didn’t always know what was bad, just that something was wrong.

Suddenly, their youngest gasped. “Look over there!” Wind pointed off toward a castle in the distance. As one, the group swiveled their heads in that direction. “Is that the source?”

Time frowned, “I suppose so.” He turned toward everyone, “Let’s get going, shall we?”

The Links nodded their heads and took off toward the castle. Whatever was there was surely the reason for this ominous weather pattern.

As they approached the building, a flash (much like the one that brought them here) appeared. It was so bright that everyone was forced to bring a hand toward their eyes to shield themselves. Finally, as the light died down, they looked up, only to see- a demon pig?

Legend squinted. “You guys are seeing that too, right?”

A chorus of agreements rose up. Legend sighed, “And I thought we were done with this hero business.” He started to walk toward the castle, only to be stopped a golden barrier.

Do not go any further.

Sky’s eyes widened. He recognized that voice. It had been a long time since he had heard it, but it’s tone had been so ingrained in his memory that he could never forget it.

Time’s eyes, on the other hand, narrowed. “Why can’t we?”

This is not your battle to fight.

Murmurs rose up from the party at that. “What do you mean it’s not our battle to fight? We were literally born for this!” Wind said stubbornly.

This is one battle you are not meant to fight in.

“Hey guys,” Hyrule spoke up, “Look around.”

Everyone looked around. Now that they weren’t disoriented from the trip, they could fully comprehend the landscape. And boy, did it surprise them.

That feeling from earlier, of semi-familiarity, came back full force. They didn’t notice how old and decrepit the buildings were. They didn’t notice how, for miles, there wasn’t one flourishing settlement. They didn’t notice the wildflowers growing haphazardly, as if the wild had taken a breath and let them be free.

It was scary, how different this Hyrule was. All of the ones from the past were big, yes, but you could see everything just fine. This one, though? All they saw for miles and miles, was green. Just green.

“Who’s time is this?” Four rose a hand to his mouth shakily, “Are they the one currently fighting?”

Yes.

The voice piped up again. Twilight stomped toward the barrier, “How much do you know,” he growled.

I know enough.

“Then tell us.” Time said calmly. And so the voice did.

By the time the voice had ended their story, the fight had long been over. So enraptured were they in the tale, however, the Links didn’t notice until it was almost too late. And by too late, they meant their heads being chopped off.

When the newcomers finally settled down, Twilight was able to get a good look at the person meant to be his protege. What he saw surprised him a good deal. For one, he looked a lot more wild than he expected, with his straw blonde hair being of incredible length and braided. His blue eyes held a nearly crazed look in them, ready to bolt if things went south. For another, his clothing was radically different than most of theirs. He wore a bright blue tunic with white stitching around the edges, tan pants, and plain brown boots. The weirdest things were his accessories; he wore a navy blue cloak with an intricate diamond pattern on the back in grey and brown, and a diamond circlet adorned on his head. Whether the circlet was for actual protection or a fashion statement, Twilight didn’t know.

“That’s our story,” Twilight was brought back to the discussion by Time’s voice, “Now, what do you say?”

The current hero simply stared at them. It freaked Twilight out a little, if he was being honest, almost like he was a piece of glass being scrutinized. This went on for several seconds as the Links (minus the one in blue) waited for their (hopefully) newest member. Finally, after the silence stretched for unbearably long, the young adult toward his other companion, the current Zelda.

She looked a little worse for wear, even by Twilight’s standards. Her golden hair that he was sure shined in the sun was dirty and matted, as if she hadn’t showered in a hundred years. Like her hair, her dress was in a similar state: a once brilliant white was stained beyond belief, and ripped to shreds. Her petite body clung to her knight, who was only a few inches taller than her, but the thing that made Twilight consider her a lot more was her blue-green eyes.

They showed an intelligence that exceeded even his Zelda’s. And no, he wasn’t dissing the other’s Zeldas, they were smart as well (being the holder of the Triforce of Wisdom, after all), but their eyes didn’t hold the experience of excruciating pain and loss. These… children, for that was what they were, had been forced to grow up too fast to face a destiny they weren’t prepared for.

Twilight didn’t know their situation. He didn’t know their personality, or what they loved to eat and drink. The voice tried to tell as much as they could, but they were blocked- maybe by the restrictions of time or the Goddess herself- from a majority of it. What he did know, though, was the fierce desire to protect these too-old children from the dangers of the world.

“Link,” the princess spoke quietly, “I think you should go with them.”

Twilight saw how the boy’s ears flicked up and his eyes widened. The boy blinked, sharing a silent conversation not meant to be heard by anyone. Once again, the princess voiced her affirmation and put her hands on the boy’s hands.

“I will be perfectly fine,” Twilight heard the words exchanged from the girl, “But if there’s anything that could potentially ruin my world further, you need to stop it, Link.”

Twilight saw the look Link sent her from a mile away, “I can’t hear her anymore, Link. She’s gone, thrust out of my body as if she merely borrowed it. But perhaps that’s better, for me and for you. No more relying on prophecies. No more relying on the gods.” Zelda said tearfully, “If there’s one thing I can rely on, it’s you always wanting to help people. You may not remember everything- and that’s fine- but please, do this for our home.”

Slowly, surely, the hooded boy shook his head in resignation. He looked up, saying, “I will do it. For you.”

Zelda bowed her head, smiling, “That is all I can ask for.”

Suddenly, Time looked up, eyes flicking everywhere. “It’s coming,” he muttered. He turned toward the duo, “If you have any last goodbyes, say them now.”

Quick as a rabbit, Link grabbed the circlet off his head and placed it daintily on his friend’s. Zelda clutched the crown on her head tightly, eyes wide as she processed what just happened. “I’ve called for Purah, she should be here any second.” Link said quickly, “I’ll be back before you know it.”

Zelda nodded. “I know.”

As the bang and flash of light started up again, all of the Links heard horses galloping toward them. Rain poured down, the heavens crying their happiness. And mixed in with it all was the sound of laughter.